Sprinter Wont Start

2006 Sprinter 3500
Turn key to ON and wait for preheater light to go out. Go to start position and nothing happens. This has been an ongoing issue for several months. If I continue to try to start (completely off then try again) it finally cranks and starts. I have changed the starter, battery and the small Starter relay under the drivers seat. Has anyone had this issue and anyone have an issue with the ignition switch? Thanks for any help.

Do you have Remote Key Entry? (RKE)

Sprinters with RKE can (in theory ... mine does) crank the starter even if the RFID chip isn't recognized.
If you do NOT have RKE, the starter will not crank until the SKREEM recognizes the key's RFID chip.
However, if that was the case, you should see "Start Err" on your dashboard display (which you're not).

To test the starter portion of the ignition switch, use a voltmeter to probe the seat-side starter relay's coil pins ... verify that 12v is reliably appearing there with the key in the Start position.

--dick
2006 service manual, wiring diagrams are section 8W: http://diysprinter.co.uk/reference/2006-VA-SM.pdf

You may have a bad engine to chassis ground cable, but that usually seems to set off the check engine light with somewhat random codes. Testing the ignition switch seems like it would be a good next step

Need some more information about your car...
Automatic tranmission? The ECU will only start the car, when trans ist in "P" or "N".

Look for some helping hands. Take out the starter relais and check with a voltmeter if there is voltage when the key is turned to "start". No voltage? Go back to ignition switch, connectors and wires to check them.

Take out the starter relais. Be shure trans is in neutral and parking brake is secured!! Prepare a cable a connector (the same connector type like from relais) on the one side. A fuse in line of the cable would be no bad idea. Place this end of cable into relais socket to the connector running to the magnetic switch of your starter. Then connect the other end of cable with positive terminal of battery. Take care! If everything works, the starter will work immedeately. Starter still won´t work? Check cables from relais socket to starter, big cables from starter to battery and big negative cables to ground too.

OK so far i checked if the interior lights dimmed when I went to start and only a very small amount. Then checked the starter solenoid terminal and only get 8.4 VDC when in the start mode. Something not right here! Next step check wire from start relay to solenoid. At least the start relay is working so that eliminates a lot of things. Tomorrow the hunt continues. Stay tuned. Thank you guys for all the ideas. Also to clarify my opening question, the starter was changed because it failed, the battery was changed because it was old and would not hold a charge and I had a spare starter relay so just installed that because it was quick. All these things were done unrelated to this issue (except for the relay) in the past year.

der.harleyman said:

Need some more information about your car...
Automatic tranmission? The ECU will only start the car, when trans ist in "P" or "N".

Click to expand...

Try shifting the trans selector lever through all the positions then back to either P or N and try again. You can poke a pen into the emergency release hole to shift the lever.

Do you have a scanner that talks 'Sprinter' (ie not generic OBD)? If so it should tell you the status of both the SKREEM/RKE modules and the gearshift position.

Keith.

42vagabond said:

OK so far i checked if the interior lights dimmed when I went to start and only a very small amount. Then checked the starter solenoid terminal and only get 8.4 VDC when in the start mode. Something not right here! Next step check wire from start relay to solenoid. At least the start relay is working so that eliminates a lot of things. Tomorrow the hunt continues. Stay tuned. Thank you guys for all the ideas. Also to clarify my opening question, the starter was changed because it failed, the battery was changed because it was old and would not hold a charge and I had a spare starter relay so just installed that because it was quick. All these things were done unrelated to this issue (except for the relay) in the past year.

Click to expand...

Within the last week there was another thread with a similar voltage reading (7v).
It turned out the person measuring had the black probe incorrectly placed.

Here: https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79889

Try measuring with the red probe on the thin wire, but put the *black* probe on to various places:
The starter body, the engine and the metal frame (or battery negative post).((that's 3 different sites))
If the first two (starter/engine) read much lower than the metal frame, suspect your ground strap that bridges the rubber engine mount down behind the fuel filter.



--dick (i'll add the link to the other thread in a few minutes)((done: see "here:" above))

Looks like a bad starter. Its only 6 months old but when I went from the starter solenoid to the battery direct the solenoid worked but the starter didn't. I'l post if this is the case when the new starter comes in. Can't believe its the starter but it is what it is. I think the frozen starter was dragging down the voltage when engaged so thats why I ws getting the low voltage on the small solenoid wire when in the start mode. We'll see... Thanks for your help, JC