Bought this 06 sight unseen since there were none in the local Denver market. Had a friend that was gonna drive it out for me but when he got to the dealer the brakes were so poor he refused. Fast forward... they worked on it and said it was better. It wasn't, but my driver put 1700 mi on it anyway bringing it to Denver. Pleasantly surprised at the condition it arrived in, excepting the brakes.
I'm a MB tech so figured I'd see what options the factory SDS diagnostic system had for bleeding the brakes, because I know the used car dealer tech struggled with it. Turns out that the ESP module has a procedure called "Exceptional Bleeding". Figured that there was nothing to lose but brake fluid so I ran through the process. It has you pump the brakes while it cycles the ABS pump on and off, all with the bleeder screw open. It didn't say to but I did the process with the power bleeder connected and set to 2 bar just for good measure. Happy to say that this improved the sinking brake pedal feel by about 50%. I think it could still be better, but it is at least not terrifying to drive any more. I still want to get some ABS activation but I don't have a good place to get it to break traction. On some of the ESP equipped Mercedes it takes sliding on the ABS in reverse to get them to fully bleed out. I figure its worth a try on the Sprinter too. Easier said than done though.
With the SDS connected I also took a look at the injector classification. The motor runs great but at a hot idle it sounds like one cylinder was hitting harder than the others. Thought maybe an injector got replaced and not coded. Strangely enough, the injector classifications were in an un-initialized state. All 5 read AAAAAE. I went ahead and pulled the cover off the motor and coded the module for the injectors. Everything looked great up top, no sign of black death or oil leaks. With injectors coded, the idle seems to have more of a rolling clack v/s the rhythmic single cylinder ping it had.
As I figure out more problems and issues, I'll keep this thread updated.
I'm a MB tech so figured I'd see what options the factory SDS diagnostic system had for bleeding the brakes, because I know the used car dealer tech struggled with it. Turns out that the ESP module has a procedure called "Exceptional Bleeding". Figured that there was nothing to lose but brake fluid so I ran through the process. It has you pump the brakes while it cycles the ABS pump on and off, all with the bleeder screw open. It didn't say to but I did the process with the power bleeder connected and set to 2 bar just for good measure. Happy to say that this improved the sinking brake pedal feel by about 50%. I think it could still be better, but it is at least not terrifying to drive any more. I still want to get some ABS activation but I don't have a good place to get it to break traction. On some of the ESP equipped Mercedes it takes sliding on the ABS in reverse to get them to fully bleed out. I figure its worth a try on the Sprinter too. Easier said than done though.
With the SDS connected I also took a look at the injector classification. The motor runs great but at a hot idle it sounds like one cylinder was hitting harder than the others. Thought maybe an injector got replaced and not coded. Strangely enough, the injector classifications were in an un-initialized state. All 5 read AAAAAE. I went ahead and pulled the cover off the motor and coded the module for the injectors. Everything looked great up top, no sign of black death or oil leaks. With injectors coded, the idle seems to have more of a rolling clack v/s the rhythmic single cylinder ping it had.
As I figure out more problems and issues, I'll keep this thread updated.
