johnkimzey5@gmail.com
New member
Not Really sure where to post this, but here goes. I own a 2017 Jayco Melbourne 24L which is based on a Sprinter 3500 with a 3L v6 Diesel and auto transmission. I tow a 2012 Mini Cooper as our toad/dinghy. The Sprinter is a 2016 model and is under warranty with about 2200 miles on it. I have a lot of background to put here, so please be patient. Most of our outings to date have been close to home (less than 100 miles). Recently we decided to take the RV from our home in Cherry Hill NJ to Williamsburg VA for the William and Mary University graduation. We traveled via I295 to Delaware and then US 13 to VA across the Chesapeake bay bridge and up I 64 (rush hour traffic) to Williamsburg. Most of the trip was either heavy traffic of 55 mile speed limits. no problems.
The return trip was a different story. We left early on a Monday morning and drove about 50 miles at 60-65 miles per hours and had the unit go into LHM (check engine light came on, etc...) in the middle of the Chesapeake bay bridge. I called MB Roadside assistance and the unit was towed back to Merceds Benz of Virginia Beach. All this was excellent and I left the unit there for a week while they worked on it. They said they had multiple codes and ended up replacing the entire Throttle Body assembly and the EGR valve. Their words, not mine. I think this unit has direct injection, not throttle body injection. Anyway I drove the Mini back on a Friday Night and hooked up the unit on Saturday Morning and started my trip home. I decided to take US 13 across the Bay bridge and then 313 through MD and DE because there are fewer small towns and associated traffic lights to deal with, and the speed limit is higher. Nice morning, no problems until I got onto 313 and kicked the unit up to about 65. A few miles at that speed (maybe 15 miles) and the until went int LHM again. Called MB Roadside and the unit was towed to a local MB sprinter service center in Delaware. This experience was NOT as pleasant or efficient as the first, but I drove my Mini home and spoke with the service department several times over the next week.
They finally told me that the unit was definitely in LHM and they had cleared that (?) and they were unable to reproduce the problem. They told me that MB (??) had worked with them and that they determined that I was overloading the engine by towing my car. We had several lengthy discussions about Curb weight, towed car weight, total vehicle weight, etc.... I contacted Jayco and we reviewed the numbers. No sense in going over all that. Simply the Mini has a curb weight of 2500 lbs and the towing capacity of the RV is 5000 lb. The RV is maybe 200 lbs over the curb weight and the total is several thousand short of the total vehicle weight limit.
After reading this and other forums I noted that many people comment on kicking the trans into a lower gear when towing. The Sprinter Operator's manual alludes to this, but does not talk about engine load or max towing speeds. Not wanting to resort to calling the service guy a complete idiot, I decided that maybe he had something, even if he could not explain it beyond "You are overloading the engine.". I was absolutely convinced he was wrong, but one can be absolutely convinced and absolutely wrong.....
My wife and I drove down to middle Delaware and picked the unit up. Armed with the key sequence to clear the LHM condition, we hooked up the Mini and started on an "experimental" trip. We headed up US 13 to US 313 keeping the speed under 60 MPH. We drove to Dover DE without any problems and kicked the speed up to 65 and within a mile or so... no power and could not maintain 35 MPH, although no CEL/MEI came on. Pulled over and shut down and restarted. The problem went away. I drove to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, keeping the speed under 60 with no problems. I was concerned that the unit would overload on the bridge (pretty steep and long). I set the cruise control for 60 and headed up the bridge. The unit kicked into a lower gear and we passed everyone going up the bridge and sailed down the other side. I drove about 25 miles at 60 with no problems. I kicked the speed up to 65 and within a couple of minutes LHM came back. Pulled over, shut down, restarted and drove home without further incident.
I have since found that my scan tool has a real time load monitor and I will try and reproduce all this while recording the real time engine load. Hopefully I can learn something from that.
ASSUMING this otherwise wonderful engine has a load issue as I have defined it, I have tried to find out the specs on this engine... mainly what is the power range and what is the best RPM when towing a load? To consider towing this mini a load is laughable. This UNIT doesn't even seem to know it exists..... LHM excepted of course.
Has anyone else run into anything like this? I read something about LHM and no power when towing with a Sprinter van (not RV) but was not sure it was related to my issue. Does anyone have any suggestions or guidance?
The return trip was a different story. We left early on a Monday morning and drove about 50 miles at 60-65 miles per hours and had the unit go into LHM (check engine light came on, etc...) in the middle of the Chesapeake bay bridge. I called MB Roadside assistance and the unit was towed back to Merceds Benz of Virginia Beach. All this was excellent and I left the unit there for a week while they worked on it. They said they had multiple codes and ended up replacing the entire Throttle Body assembly and the EGR valve. Their words, not mine. I think this unit has direct injection, not throttle body injection. Anyway I drove the Mini back on a Friday Night and hooked up the unit on Saturday Morning and started my trip home. I decided to take US 13 across the Bay bridge and then 313 through MD and DE because there are fewer small towns and associated traffic lights to deal with, and the speed limit is higher. Nice morning, no problems until I got onto 313 and kicked the unit up to about 65. A few miles at that speed (maybe 15 miles) and the until went int LHM again. Called MB Roadside and the unit was towed to a local MB sprinter service center in Delaware. This experience was NOT as pleasant or efficient as the first, but I drove my Mini home and spoke with the service department several times over the next week.
They finally told me that the unit was definitely in LHM and they had cleared that (?) and they were unable to reproduce the problem. They told me that MB (??) had worked with them and that they determined that I was overloading the engine by towing my car. We had several lengthy discussions about Curb weight, towed car weight, total vehicle weight, etc.... I contacted Jayco and we reviewed the numbers. No sense in going over all that. Simply the Mini has a curb weight of 2500 lbs and the towing capacity of the RV is 5000 lb. The RV is maybe 200 lbs over the curb weight and the total is several thousand short of the total vehicle weight limit.
After reading this and other forums I noted that many people comment on kicking the trans into a lower gear when towing. The Sprinter Operator's manual alludes to this, but does not talk about engine load or max towing speeds. Not wanting to resort to calling the service guy a complete idiot, I decided that maybe he had something, even if he could not explain it beyond "You are overloading the engine.". I was absolutely convinced he was wrong, but one can be absolutely convinced and absolutely wrong.....
My wife and I drove down to middle Delaware and picked the unit up. Armed with the key sequence to clear the LHM condition, we hooked up the Mini and started on an "experimental" trip. We headed up US 13 to US 313 keeping the speed under 60 MPH. We drove to Dover DE without any problems and kicked the speed up to 65 and within a mile or so... no power and could not maintain 35 MPH, although no CEL/MEI came on. Pulled over and shut down and restarted. The problem went away. I drove to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, keeping the speed under 60 with no problems. I was concerned that the unit would overload on the bridge (pretty steep and long). I set the cruise control for 60 and headed up the bridge. The unit kicked into a lower gear and we passed everyone going up the bridge and sailed down the other side. I drove about 25 miles at 60 with no problems. I kicked the speed up to 65 and within a couple of minutes LHM came back. Pulled over, shut down, restarted and drove home without further incident.
I have since found that my scan tool has a real time load monitor and I will try and reproduce all this while recording the real time engine load. Hopefully I can learn something from that.
ASSUMING this otherwise wonderful engine has a load issue as I have defined it, I have tried to find out the specs on this engine... mainly what is the power range and what is the best RPM when towing a load? To consider towing this mini a load is laughable. This UNIT doesn't even seem to know it exists..... LHM excepted of course.
Has anyone else run into anything like this? I read something about LHM and no power when towing with a Sprinter van (not RV) but was not sure it was related to my issue. Does anyone have any suggestions or guidance?
