MB Recall results into P001685 (camshaft)

[ajlsl600]

Ti's wot we get when doin it that way saves a quid and 5 min in production assly time. Wxxxers

 

[Blobcat]

Ti's wot we get when doin it that way saves a quid and 5 min in production assly time. Wxxxers

It’s for pedestrian safety to keep the front end lower

 

[ajlsl600]

Rubbish idea.

 

[Botus]

You do have to wonder what the point of software updates is on older cars - it's asking for trouble if the car is working fine.

Took wfe's 7yr old VW Tiguan to the dealer recently and they said they'd be updating the emissions system (it's a later car, not affected by the VW emissions scandal). I asked if they'd done any others and they said mine was the first. Hmmm - I'll let someone else test it then. German forums show a variery of issues, including massively increased AdBlue use.

the chain is likely stretched and needs to be replaced before it snaps and destroys the engine - that's not a software fault - if the vehicle also has an out of date faulty map with bugs and errors, that may well lead to possible engine damage (which is why they went to the effort to fix the software), that is nothing to do with a stretched chain its just another fault that needs to be resolved just as the chain does

its called maintaining a vehicle correctly, so it is (ideally more reliable) and both safe for the user and others or would you rather the car cuts out on the M25 and at best causes you to sit stuck behind it on a friday night for 3 hours, or worse for your wife and kids to be involved in a multiple car incident with fatalities, coz every fifth old wreck on the road randomly conks out becasue it didn't have software it needed 5 years ago ?

 

[Botus]

don't forget mileage is not an indicator of how hard the STUPID stop start system got involved to both stretch the chain, wear the starter out and ideally (from Merc's perspective) destroy the engine

 

[ajlsl600]

As above. Its difficult not to see it that way..

 

[Rory]

the chain is likely stretched and needs to be replaced before it snaps and destroys the engine - that's not a software fault - if the vehicle also has an out of date faulty map with bugs and errors, that may well lead to possible engine damage (which is why they went to the effort to fix the software), that is nothing to do with a stretched chain its just another fault that needs to be resolved just as the chain does

its called maintaining a vehicle correctly, so it is (ideally more reliable) and both safe for the user and others or would you rather the car cuts out on the M25 and at best causes you to sit stuck behind it on a friday night for 3 hours, or worse for your wife and kids to be involved in a multiple car incident with fatalities, coz every fifth old wreck on the road randomly conks out becasue it didn't have software it needed 5 years ago ?

The chain would throw up an EML eventually anyway, and / or become noticably noisy. Do any of them just break?

I don't agree on the "out of date faulty map with bugs and errors" - it's worked fine for years, leave it alone. It's not like a computer that needs constant updates as other software its interacting with is changing or being hacked. Cars (at least up until very recently) are a closed system. Of course with over-the-air updates on more recent vehicles, especially EVs, all that goes out of the window.

 

[supernoodle]

I expect the software update just tightened up the tolerances at which the error P001685 flags.
Given you said timing is way out its possible that error wasn't even implemented in the original software.
If a manufacturer has a lot of failures in the field they will make such changes to mitigate.

 

[Botus]

lots of merc cam chains are now just snapping and destroying engines

a cynic might spot a link with stop stop start needlessly stressing the chain to hell emission control technology and the accidental move to a weaker simplex chain