EDC / non starter...

cravings

Member
hello all, me again.

more fun with this van (year 2000 MWB 313CDI, 128000 miles on clock)...

the gist: van is on my driveway, in the way. the other day, i was reversing it up the hill here and it stalled... EDC light is lit constantly now, and it won't start..

recent events / background: have been dealing with black death. have had injector issues for about 2 years which i kind of ignored. then they got really bad. smoke billowing out the back, diesel stink everywhere. EDC light would come on and van would shut off if i went above about 2000rpm or so. managed to limp to a mechanic like that. he looked like he'd witnessed a murder as he took the cover off..... anyway... that's the worst that the injectors got. have had 3 of the 4 reconditioned by now, all that side of things was running well for the last while. have also done oil and oil filter, air filter and fuel filter in recent months. had all new glow plugs fitted while injector work was happening.

last weekend, drove it hard. van was very heavy, and ended up towing a 2 ton trailer too. had to get it out of a muddy field up a steep hill so there was a moment of rally driving went on!

later that day, got about 50 miles, van stalled at a roundabout, and wouldn't start again. no warning lights, half tank of fuel. electrically sounded like it was turning over, but no connect to the engine starting. got it towed away to a garage. garage man didn't have much time for me, i convinced him to take a quick look, he did. wiring issue he says. that was his guess, he says he wiggled some wires under the bonnet and it started working after he did that. seems to have been right, later that day i couldn't start it again, i wiggled some wires under the bonnet that looked like they had fresh paw prints on them, and it started again.

so i got it home, and now have the EDC issue described above. i'm not sure if it's not starting because of the EDC issue, or because of whatever loose wire i haven't yet had the time to work out and deal with.

i think the clutch is going on this van and it's all round in pretty bad shape so i think i'm coming to the end of it's life with me.... but right now, it's in the way and i'd really like to get it started so i could at least tidy it up.

took the cover off and it seems at least one of the injectors is acting up again.. may or may not be related to the EDC issue.

anyway.. here are a couple of pics. of the wiring in question, and of the injectors, just for fun.

can anyone tell me what the wires i can see do, and if a loose connection there would indeed cause the van to not start, or is this a red herring?

sorry for long winded post..

steve





 

cravings

Member
whoop! got it started and moved today. still... very aware i still have the randomly occuring loose connection that prevents me from starting, and although the EDC light seems to have gone off for the moment, i don't know why it wouldn't come back...
 

Boater

New member
Yours is next generation from mine but those wires look kind similar, some are for the heater blower circuits and can't cause EDC to come on, some, on mine, are for the EGR vacuum solenoid, the thing is I don't see the solenoid or EGR because your intake manifold is arranged differently. EGR issues can put EDC on. Can't see them causing no start though.

You need to find a friendly garage with decent merc scan tool and an auto-spark in house.

I have written about last years disaster a few times - it all started one day when I stopped to check out an problem with an indicator! Turned the engine off, wouldn't start. Checked everything, no start. Called RAC, started first time for him. Stopped for fuel as I arrived home, wouldn't start. Spent an hour on the forecourt wiggling wires etc. before it started, took it home, turned off and no start. Left it a couple of hours and it started - put 2 and 2 together, starts from cold, what if head is warped and opens up at the gasket when hot? Checked radiator, found emulsion. turned out the head was cracked.

Rebuilt the engine, tried to drive 500 miles to my brothers wedding. Died 20 miles short. Stone dead, EDC light stayed, plenty of diesel, all electrical connectors cleaned and reseated etc. etc. Called RAC, spent a lot more than the allotted 40 mins trying to start it before calling for a tow truck. Got to diesel specialist just before lunch, dad picked me up for the wedding, all OK, sort of. Monday morning garage had a look - mechanic totally befuddled, we could make it fire but it wouldn't keep running. Eventually dug out a high end bosch scanner (bosch fuel system) and the right leads and found a code for fuel temp sensor which wouldn't clear. started to look like fuel temp sensor. I am not into randomly swapping parts, and this was inside the fuel pump on my engine, so he dug out the service notes and had their spark go through the tests to confirm if the sensor was dead. It was, they changed it and I was back on the road just after lunch time with my wallet lightened by a good deal less than I had feared. It was luck of course to have picked a good garage with the right equipment and understanding of how to use it, but I would never have found that fault myself.

Your problem is probably different, your fuel system is certainly quite different because it is cdi, but I reckon you need the codes read by someone who knows how to interpret them and how to follow up with additional tests. I am assuming of course that you have already gone as far as you can cleaning and re-seating the wiring connectors you suspect.
 

cravings

Member
thanks for the lengthy reply.

i don't think the EDC issue is related to my wire gremlin. i'd be delighted if it was... the reason i don't think that is because the wire issue was present before the EDC suddenly reappeared, along with yet more injector issues.

going to bring the van back to the mechanic today.... i suspect he's going to want money for the job... i want him to do what i previously paid him to do.. which was sort the leaky injector mess.

will be in touch again soon with updates.. but looking to move this van on i think. someone bettter at mechanical things would be a better owner of this van than me i think.
 

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