2014 4 cylinder rattling noise at cold start

Original owner. 55000 miles, mostly interstate. Used as a traveler for my family. After a trip to Louisiana the following morning taking van for major cleaning noticed a metallic sound at start up. Checked all engine vitals, all OK. The sound appeared to be around the exhaust side manifold area. Further investigated I found that the bracket that is welded to the deisel particulate exhaust filter has two mounting locations. One side mounts to the transition bell housing. The bracket is broken and the mounting location on Trans bell housing has a piece about the size of a silver dollar gone. A large hole on the side and I see the torque converter. There is no evidence of any impact from a foreign object. The piece missing looks like it was pushed out from inside the housing. WOW. The rattling is the result of a DEF filter no longer properly secured. Tomorrow heading to the dealer.
I will try and post a picture later.

Anyone else had this issue??????????

Common issue and covered under warranty 5yr/100k mi in US. If dealer runs coverage on the broken bracket it will be denied. Dealer must run DPF coverage. Contest if they give you a hard time. Use Customer Assistance Center from MB for contesting.

BTW your transmission bell housing will need replacement. The repair will take over 8hours of hard work to repair. Please expect long down time.



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Pico scope I appreciate your inputs.

Picoscope said:

Common issue and covered under warranty 5yr/100k mi in US. If dealer runs coverage on the broken bracket it will be denied. Dealer must run DPF coverage. Contest if they give you a hard time. Use Customer Assistance Center from MB for contesting.

BTW your transmission bell housing will need replacement. The repair will take over 8hours of hard work to repair. Please expect long down time.



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Man, I wish you were my "local" tech. Dealer in Ft Wayne has been giving us the run-around on our "cough" issue that won't go away. First time, Service Manager drove the vehicle and felt the issue, but his Sprinter tech was out sick. Second time, "Could not replicate"


Third try will be next week. I'm going to take the tech hostage and drive around town until he observes the cough! 5/100 warranty on my 2011 ends in Feb, I don't want to be on the hook for an EGR valve.

moondawg,
You have a 2011 Sprinter with the OM-642 3.0 liter V6/5 speed (5G-Tronic/NAG-1) transmission.....right?
This is an entirely different issue as it's not related to the EGR valve at all.
This fix applies to the OM-651 2.143 liter Inline 4 cylinder engine and 7 speed (7G-Tronic) transmission.
However if you look for a authorized MB Sprinter Commercial dealer (there may be more than one in the
Ft. Wayne, IN area) they should be able to fix the "cough" on your OM-642.
You may need to call MB Customer assistance or have the dealer get the area Sprinter rep involved.
Hope this helps,
Roger

UPDATE. Well Mercedes has decided to pay for the Bell Housing but I must negotiate the labor with the dealership. I still feel the total obligation is on Mercedes. It could be worst. The cost of the Housing is about $1000 and labor $1200.
What still bothers me is how this happened. I do know the DPF gets very hot. Just wondering heat transfer from bracket to Bell Housing could have caused it to blow out. After all the Bell Housing is made of cast Aluminum. Just a thought. I am thinking about a repair patch of aluminum attached with JB weld and a new modified bracket that would attack to the DPF and the frame cross member below it. Looks very promising. I'll post updates. I'll see if I can post some pics as soon as I figure it out.

Broken exhaust bracket very common on the 4 cylinders. Sad part is when the bracket breaks it also breaks the short piece of flex pipe where it goes into the turbo. Which you will need the DPF replaced. Bracket wasn't build to hold up. But wait it gets better.... they will replace it with the same bracket which in turn will break again an break the exhaust pipe again....
There's rumor that a new upgraded bracket is suppose to be released mid 2017. Good luck you need to fight for warranty.
Btw easiest way to check your pipe is to look at the gold Colored ring right behind the turbo an see if there's soot around it. You tube my video for more info

Fleet tech- no dealer mechanic here

Sparky357,
As suggested, call the CAC (Customer Assistance Center) and get them involved.
Find out who the area Sprinter Rep is and get them involved as well.
Use the word "cascade" as it's very appropriate here.
The poorly designed bracket breaks, allowing the DPF to flop around unsupported.
The unsupported DPF breaks the flex pipes at one or both ends of the DPF so the
entire DPF needs to be replaced.
The third part of the "cascade" is when the bracket breaks, it cracks or puts a hole
in a thin area in the bell housing right where the DPF support bracket bolts on.
I had the bracket replace @~ 70k miles, under warranty, had it checked just before the
emissions warranty period ran out @ 100k miles.
The DPF flex pipes were broken on both ends, so a new DPF was installed under warranty.
I had a funny rattling noise, just like the OP and they showed me the cracked bell housing.
I had to stay overnight in a motel (they gave me a loaner Metris) while they replaced the bell housing. This was @ 114,000 miles, so the parts were covered under the "cascade" of issues and I only paid ~$800 labor.
While at the dealer, they actually suggested that I contact the CAC and provided the phone number (877-762-8267) but I felt that the dealer was already giving me a very good deal on the repairs so I did not call the CAC.
As suggested, this is really the only widespread issue with the OM-651, and you have to apply some pressure on the dealer's service dept. to get the full warranty coverage, but @ 55,000 miles there should be no question that it's completely under warranty as your emissions systems (the DPF) will not function correctly until it's fixed completely...new bracket, new DPF, new bell housing.
Roger

Hey Sparky,

My 2014 170 I4 has had similar issues, if you look at my older posts I go into a lot of detail about it.

Dan