Black smoke on acceleration (again) S210 E320cdi

[MarcBG]

Did you clean out your cats? Blocked cats will certainly cause smoke.

I will clean them out over the weekend and post the results here.. the black smoke has returned today and it's just as bad as before (regardless of the vacuum transducer bypass & air filter removal)

 

[MarcBG]

Well I could only undo the first two bolts holding the primary cat until the sun went down (will fully undo it tomorrow) and this is what the inside of the cat looked like, what do you guys think? Also I noticed the exhaust manifold had two cylinders where it was discoloured have a look at the pictures :S

 

[MarcBG]

No luck, removed the cats, honeycomb structures were intact, so gave them a thorough cleanse using brake cleaner followed by a sodium hydroxide bath and rinsed them countless times. Car still puts out big clouds of smoke. Still lacks power in the 1200rpm-2000rpm region (until the turbo kicks in) during that power region is when it smokes most. After 2000rpm the car no longer smokes (at least not noticeably). No limp mode or diagnostic codes either (checked on star diag).

Guess the only next steps are to either part out the car or sell it to the nearest car breakers. Was a great car while it lasted.

 

[LostKiwi]

Something is telling it it's getting more air than is reaching the cylinders. Do you have any leaking pipework between turbo to intercooler to intake manifold or a leaking intercooler?

 

[MarcBG]

Something is telling it it's getting more air than is reaching the cylinders. Do you have any leaking pipework between turbo to intercooler to intake manifold or a leaking intercooler?

Thank you for your reply - all pipes/hoses were removed last week and they were all in good shape, but did notice some oil residue on some of the joints where they connect. Today I've replaced all seals/o-rings (inc. thick o-ring between turbo to solid plastic part, and also the one where the EGR joins the metal pipe below it).

The only one left to do (tomorrow) is the o-ring between the end of the hose from the intercooler output & the start of the metal pipe that then goes to the EGR.

Also have replaced the vacuum transducers for the EGR & Turbo with new ones as the dealer previously mentioned the EGR Vac Transducer was bad. Even tried reinstalling the EGR bypass circuit by Dieselman that I had a while back.

No luck. I have just taken the car for a test drive, and black smoke is still there haunting me ( and other motorists behind the car )

Odd thing is, during the test drive, it partially blew the hose out of its place where it connects to the intercooler input and I could hear it hiss but still, it's putting out exactly the same amount of black smoke and power as it was before the work was done, is that indicative of anything?

 

[LostKiwi]

Have you pressure tested the intercooler?

 

[MarcBG]

I've left the car in the hands of a seemingly competent mechanic.. we shall see once the car's back in my hands again. Will let you know the outcome

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Reading this thread through I don’t recall hearing that the inlet port shut off motor controlling the butterfly valves in the inlet manifold were checked for operation ie they could be seized open/shut which would affect air/fuel mix

 

[LostKiwi]

Reading this thread through I don’t recall hearing that the inlet port shut off motor controlling the butterfly valves in the inlet manifold were checked for operation ie they could be seized open/shut which would affect air/fuel mix

Does the OM613 have them?

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes...414962?hash=item2cef7b95f2:g:x8kAAOSwqYRco4IW

 

[bob 6600]

Does the OM613 have them?

Yep, inlet port motor M55

 

[MarcBG]

Hey, swirl flaps & inlet motor are working fine both checked when the intake manifold was taken off for cleaning.

The mechanic suspects the engine timing might be a bit off, causing the smokey issues & lack of power at take off - diagnostics showed p000a (i think) code so he swaped the camshaft sensor for a known good one but the fault remains. He will look further into it and let me know. at this point I think it's worth a shot?

Good night

 

[MarcBG]

Picked the car up today - two injectors replaced, catalytic converter was cleaned in the ultrasonic machine, new camshaft sensor, and a few more things performed, but still no luck.. Car's smoking just as bad as when I dropped it off at the shop.. Hopefuly I can get to the bottom of this some day

 

[star]

Remove the inlet manifold and check to see if it’s restricted, had one last year and the tract was 1/3 of it’s supposed diameter due to carbon build up.

 

[MarcBG]

Hi Star, I did remove the inlet manifold a couple of months ago and just as you mention it had excessive carbon build up so I took my time to get it as clean as possible before putting it back on the car. Unfortunately that didn't work either

 

[LostKiwi]

Have you pressure tested the intercooler yet?

 

[MarcBG]

LostKiwi that's the next thing on the list, will post back how it goes

 

[star]

We used a plumbers anti kink pipe tool to go around the bends as you cannot see if there blocked.

 

[MarcBG]

Hey there, little update, after a few test drives I've noticed the following things:

- Car seems to have less lack of power, and puts out less smoke when driven after cold start. Charge air test on Star shows an air mass of ~505mg/Hub at idle. After it's reached operating temperature the reading will go down to ~430mg/hub or lower and black smoke is more dense out the exhaust. Also feels a little more sluggish during take off etc at operating temperature than when cold.

- Driving at higher RPM's, under load, there's a high pitched screech/whistle that wasn't audible before I left the car in the mechanics' hands.. and the only place I can find signs of a boost leak is on the turbo itself. Whole turbo was recently cleaned up and shiny, and a few days later the actuator is covered in oil like it's been dripped on. Definitely will dig deeper soon as it's the only thing I can see gone wrong.

- Driving on the motorway, while accelerating relatively strong, after the engine hits 2700RPM I can feel a gentle pull from the engine (it's ever so smooth, but you can definetly notice it) and the lack of power disappears and no black smoke! It's the best the car's felt since this whole black smoke issue started..

- Goes into limp mode sooner rather than later P0100-016 B2/5 (Hot Film Mass Air Flow Sensor) Plausibility 1, gets flagged at around 700rpm (355mg/hub) and 1400rpm (380mg/hub) which is indeed when the car feels the worst as far as lack of power and black smoke.

So I'm thinking really need to check that suspected turbo boost/oily leak, pressure test the intercooler, and eventually will do what fellow member Star recommends with thoroughly cleaning the intake manifold with anti kink pipe tool etc as the car will certainly benefit from this again.

 

[om613]

Got a good spare OM613 IC, if you find that yours leaks.