Vehicle: 2007 Sprinter 2500 144” 3.0l V6, 150,000 miles. Purchased November 2017 with 132,000 miles.
All codes read with a bluedriver scanner, read out on my iphone.
History: Last summer, especially in hot weather, we started getting sporadic singular clunks or coughs that would cause the accelerating van to hesitate momentarily. We took it into Linden in Golden as we passed through, and ended up replacing all the transmission solenoids and transmission fluid (previous fluid used was not approved by Mercedes, even though it claimed it met the spec). The theory was that improper fluid paired with old, failing solenoids was causing the issue.
As we drove across the country, the singular clunks/coughs resurfaced, usually in hot weather and very sporadically (once every 300-500 miles or so). I cleaned the EGR valve to see if that would help, but it wasn’t really that bad. We also had a persistent issue of exhaust smell leaking into the cab, which was occasionally very bad (I now believe it was really bad during DPF regeneration cycles). We took the van into Neely Coble in Nashville and they found a crack/failure in the flex pipe attached to the catalytic converter. They replaced that and the DPF temp sensor, and also noted the adjacent chassis harness wiring has some damage and may need to be addressed in the future. They also said the DPF looked good.
After getting the cat replaced, the van drove great, even in the hot weather we found in Florida. No more coughing/clunking in the last 2000 miles. The best guess that I have is failure of the flexpipe created unpredictable drops in exhaust pressure, messing with the turbo or EGR system and causing the clunks/coughs. That’s just a wild guess, as I am far from a diesel pro.
10 days ago, the CEL came on and it read code P2084 (exhaust gas temperature bank 1 sensor 2 – which I believe is the DPF temperature sensor). I pulled up the live data on bluedriver and the sensor was reading 0 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (ambient temp was 70 degrees). This sensor had just been replaced a week ago, so I took a look under the hood and beneath the vehicle at it and all seemed good. For good measure, I squeezed the electrical connector together, although there was no sign of poor contact. When I fired everything up, the DPF temperature sensor was now reading normal values, so it seems that did the trick.
Current symptoms: That same day I scanned the CEL again, and code P242F (DPF ash accumulation) showed up in addition to P2084 (P2084 subsequently cleared after jiggling the connector). Additionally, I have noticed that the EGR system does not appear to be functioning, as the commanded EGR is stuck at 4.7% (although perhaps that is a protective mechanism due to the DPF error).
The vehicle seems to be making normal power, and is getting normal mileage (maybe slightly less than normal).
I have an appointment with Linden in a couple weeks to get them to inspect the chassis harness mentioned by Neely Coble. But we still have 1500 miles to drive before we get there, after driving 1000 miles already with the P242F CEL on – is it safe to drive that much farther?
Any idea why the vehicle is not just going through a regen cycle? I’ve read many P242F threads and haven’t found anything that might point me in the right direction yet. Any advice is welcome!
All codes read with a bluedriver scanner, read out on my iphone.
History: Last summer, especially in hot weather, we started getting sporadic singular clunks or coughs that would cause the accelerating van to hesitate momentarily. We took it into Linden in Golden as we passed through, and ended up replacing all the transmission solenoids and transmission fluid (previous fluid used was not approved by Mercedes, even though it claimed it met the spec). The theory was that improper fluid paired with old, failing solenoids was causing the issue.
As we drove across the country, the singular clunks/coughs resurfaced, usually in hot weather and very sporadically (once every 300-500 miles or so). I cleaned the EGR valve to see if that would help, but it wasn’t really that bad. We also had a persistent issue of exhaust smell leaking into the cab, which was occasionally very bad (I now believe it was really bad during DPF regeneration cycles). We took the van into Neely Coble in Nashville and they found a crack/failure in the flex pipe attached to the catalytic converter. They replaced that and the DPF temp sensor, and also noted the adjacent chassis harness wiring has some damage and may need to be addressed in the future. They also said the DPF looked good.
After getting the cat replaced, the van drove great, even in the hot weather we found in Florida. No more coughing/clunking in the last 2000 miles. The best guess that I have is failure of the flexpipe created unpredictable drops in exhaust pressure, messing with the turbo or EGR system and causing the clunks/coughs. That’s just a wild guess, as I am far from a diesel pro.
10 days ago, the CEL came on and it read code P2084 (exhaust gas temperature bank 1 sensor 2 – which I believe is the DPF temperature sensor). I pulled up the live data on bluedriver and the sensor was reading 0 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (ambient temp was 70 degrees). This sensor had just been replaced a week ago, so I took a look under the hood and beneath the vehicle at it and all seemed good. For good measure, I squeezed the electrical connector together, although there was no sign of poor contact. When I fired everything up, the DPF temperature sensor was now reading normal values, so it seems that did the trick.
Current symptoms: That same day I scanned the CEL again, and code P242F (DPF ash accumulation) showed up in addition to P2084 (P2084 subsequently cleared after jiggling the connector). Additionally, I have noticed that the EGR system does not appear to be functioning, as the commanded EGR is stuck at 4.7% (although perhaps that is a protective mechanism due to the DPF error).
The vehicle seems to be making normal power, and is getting normal mileage (maybe slightly less than normal).
I have an appointment with Linden in a couple weeks to get them to inspect the chassis harness mentioned by Neely Coble. But we still have 1500 miles to drive before we get there, after driving 1000 miles already with the P242F CEL on – is it safe to drive that much farther?
Any idea why the vehicle is not just going through a regen cycle? I’ve read many P242F threads and haven’t found anything that might point me in the right direction yet. Any advice is welcome!