Rough idle ????

Just got back from an 1100 mile camping trip and the van sat in the driveway for a couple days. This morning it started up like always and drove the the end of the driveway(150 feet). Just as I was about to pull out on the road the idle went rough,, like it was only running on 4 cylinders. I could rev it and the roughness went away. I left it running and opened the hood to see/hear if there was something obvious.,,, nothing. I shut it down and waited a couple minutes and it fired right back up still idling rough. After about another 30 seconds it cleared up and I drove to work, 8 miles. Opened the hood again, nothing obvious. I went on a service call this afternoon about 150 miles round trip and it's running fine.

CEL never lit up when it was running rough.

Any thoughts???

'04, 80,000 miles.

I have a 04 with 90,000. Around 80,000 I seem to have something similar and mine was my fuel filter. That was the first time I changed mine which is way past its recommended life.

Just a thought, but if it has be several thousand miles since it was changed it is a pretty easy job and relatively cheap but it's not a $5 part. It needs to handle quite a bit of pressure so it's made of steel and about the size of a regular oil filter. Someone had a really nice write-up on changing it if you haven't changed it yourself before.

I changed the fuel filter around 70k. I was thinking fuel filter when it first happened but when it cleared up it didn't make sence. Guess it couldn't hurt (except for the wallet) to change it out again.

Find a DAD and check for injector codes?

Mine idles rough sometimes and sometimes the idle will fluctuate up and down. Sometimes when I am slowly driving through a parking lot the engine will hesitate as if it has died then starts up again. I've replaced fuel filters and cleaned the EGR but still the same. My Benz mechanic can't figure it out either.
I've learned to live with it along with many other oddities that come and go, like brake lights that stay on sometimes, cruise control that quits working sometimes, idiot lights that come on sometimes, failure to shift sometimes. To tell you the truth this is the strangest thing I've ever owned but I love it.

Bajabum said:

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I've learned to live with it along with many other oddities that come and go, like brake lights that stay on sometimes, cruise control that quits working sometimes, idiot lights that come on sometimes, failure to shift sometimes.

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Not that you asked...

All those symptoms could have the brake switch or associated wiring harness in common. Has the brake switch ever been replaced? If yes, maybe double check the harness and connections? Maybe even try another brake switch on the chance the new one is bad out of the box? They are not that expensive. Guesses from afar. vic

Bajabum said:

Mine idles rough sometimes and sometimes the idle will fluctuate up and down. Sometimes when I am slowly driving through a parking lot the engine will hesitate as if it has died then starts up again. I've replaced fuel filters and cleaned the EGR but still the same. My Benz mechanic can't figure it out either.
I've learned to live with it along with many other oddities that come and go, like brake lights that stay on sometimes, cruise control that quits working sometimes, idiot lights that come on sometimes, failure to shift sometimes. To tell you the truth this is the strangest thing I've ever owned but I love it.

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What year is your sprinter? please dont tell me 05 or 06. I thought those were the reliable ones.

02'.....problem was due to a frozen alt. pulley. Haven't had a problem since replacing the alt. and pulley.

Had cracked piston on my 1982 MB 207. New piston fixed the problem.