hi all, just stumbled on this forum, great stuff!
I have changed my own fuel filter @ around 10K, at night, with needle nose pliers to take off the nighmarish clamps. BTW, I did reuse them, they are holding on tight @ around 25K now.
I followed the instructions in the users manual and "primed" the system with the ignition double or tripple start'n'wait. From the above post it sounds like that is not the way to go, a "no no"!! Did I ruin my fuel pump? At around that time the van developed a strange symptom of not having power on the highway, I attributed that to the MIL light coming on intermittently. The usual - intake air sensor failing. Not having time to go and find a Sprinter dealer-mechanic, I drove with the light on for a while, realising that if I start the van with a newly "discovered" procedure, it would function almost ok.
THE PROCEDURE:
ignition on, with all the light, wait 15-20 seconds.
ignition off, wait 'till the buzzing sound ends (fuel pump stops?), generally synchronized with the radio shutdown.
ignition on 'till the pre-heat spiral goes out.
start the engine.
Mechanic at first thought it was related to turbo, since he mumbled something about replacing a lot of them on sprinters. My turbo is apparently fine, but without double starting I have only about 65% of power available, and the turbo whistle is barely there at anything bellow 2500 rpm.
After getting an OBD2 interface and software and looking at available information, it looks like my problem is related more to fuel than the failing intake temp sensor, (P2199 code), and I need to either ask the dealer to replace the fuel pump of change the filter by priming it by hand.
I am at a loss, and I can not trust the mechanics anymore, since they lied to me straight in the eye, giving me error codes that were never registered by the ECM and trying to convince me that it was the ambient air sensor broken in the front bumper which I have a dent in. (More $$ to fix).
I have only one fuel related sensor reporting through the OBD2 - fuel rail pressure, and that is not enough info.
narunas