313 cdi critical engine failure

[daverake]

Hello all,

Please, I'd like to ask whoever may answer some questions about my Sprinter. First of all, I'd like to tell you that I'm Spanish, so there will be some mechanical terms I don't know, appart from the fact that English is not my mother tongue, so I will make mistakes. Excuse me for that, my apologies. I also hope there's no problem from the fact of writing from abroad.

My wife and I bought a 2010 Sprinter 313 cdi which had served as an ambulance, with 375.000 kms; we were to turn it into a motorhome. Just 33 days an 600 kms later I was driving home when the Sprinter suddenly run out of power, all warnings lightning, and woulnd't run again. Taken to the mechanic, veredict is cranckshaft seized and engine dead.

From this moment, we're searching for a substitution used engine, but we're having problems finding one here in Spain. In one junkyard I'm even told there's a list of people waiting to get one because this engine, 651.955, is defective and there's a lot of Sprinters having this failure. In two engine remanufaturers I'm told they rebuild this engine no more, because it fails again just 10.000 kms after its mounted again. I go to two Mercedes Benz dealers and they claim there's not such defective behaviour for this engine, just had a problem with certain oil pumpwhich didn't injected enough oil, but vehicles were called to Mercedes so this pump was susbtituted. Finally, another person out of Mercedes claims this failure is still going on and every 651.955 which has not that oil pump susbtituted every 100.000 kms or 10 years has the same failure my Sprinter has had.

So, what I would like to ask you is if do you know any of all this talk is true. Are those engines "weaker" than usual, as rebuilders and junkyard claim? Is anybody aware of that problem in oil pump Mercedes dealers told me? Is it true that I must replace that oil pump every 10 years or 100.000 kms? And most important of all, do you think it is worth to spend the money on repairing this van or would I be taking too much risk in case of mounting an engine taken from a junyard? I can't spend 12.000 euros on a new engine, if I had that money I wouldn't had bought an ex-ambulance with 375.000 kms. I mean, are you aware that this engine is prone to cause problems again?

Thanks very much for reading this and your advice.

David

 

[Crispian]

If its done 375,000 km's,I would suspect that it is a reliable unit!

You could try Dronsfield mercedes breakers for a used engine and see if they would ship?

 

[daverake]

If its done 375,000 km's,I would suspect that it is a reliable unit!

You could try Dronsfield mercedes breakers for a used engine and see if they would ship?

Thank you very much, Crispian. At first glance, Dronsfield have no engine listed on their website, but I will send an email in case they may have one; it looks like a good place to get parts. Problem right now is that, after brexit, taxes and custom expenses may increase its cost quite a lot. For example, before this happened I was searching for a UK driver seat with base, to have it installed instead of the double co-pilot seat, and after custom and taxes it more than doubled its price.

Anyway, before I buy an engine I'm more worried about what I was told, that these engines were so unreliably, because it scares me a lot to have another engine and having the same failure no much afterwards. We were told at one engine remanufacture company they no longer worked with those engine because they were a "delayed action bomb" !!! Can this be true?

Anyway, I really appreciate your help, Crispian

 

[peterws1957]

I don't think getting 375000 kms out of a motor makes it unreliable or fragile. Having said that if it was an ambulance, it's maintenance may have been very meticulous and another motor may not have been looked after to the same extent, but I find it hard to believe that a rebuilt motor will only last 10k kms. Have you tried German ebay? Whatever route you choose get some form of warranty on your replacement motor. And looking on the relevant website there are over 80,000 313cdi sprinters registered as on the road in the UK, so seem popular.

 

[daverake]

I don't think getting 375000 kms out of a motor makes it unreliable or fragile. Having said that if it was an ambulance, it's maintenance may have been very meticulous and another motor may not have been looked after to the same extent, but I find it hard to believe that a rebuilt motor will only last 10k kms. Have you tried German ebay? Whatever route you choose get some form of warranty on your replacement motor. And looking on the relevant website there are over 80,000 313cdi sprinters registered as on the road in the UK, so seem popular.

Hello, Peterws1957. Thanks for your help! I was quite surprised when I heard that about rebuilt motors, too! I was to buy a rebiult one before I was told that. I discussed this with one of the Mercedes guys I talked to and he told me the problem was more into profits: while Mercedes do sell these engines for 6.000€ with 2 year warranty, these companies sell them at around 3.500€ with only one year, meanwhile you can find a used complete one from 4.000 up to 5.500. I honestly don't know if that was just empty talk from that Mercedes guy, but definitely I see a point in the fact that maybe there's not much margin and they reduce costs, affecting the final quality. I don't know, honestly. My mechanic told me the problem is on the way the engine is designed... but I have read this engine had problem with injectors, with leaks, maybe with oil pump and chain, but nothing about design. I have to admit I'm lost at that.

About German ebay, it's not where I had taken the deepest look, because I was more worried about these reliability rumours. But it's as you say, 80.000 313cdi Sprinters in the UK; I would say here it's around 10% of the vans you see... so quite popular here, too. That's why I tell my wife if there were such big problems that would be something of common knowledge, as it happened with Ford Transit Puma engines back in 2010

 

[mioba]

OP, is your mecahnic a mercedes specialist with knowledge and experience of these engines.

375k km, I would not say thats untelaible and that said you have no idea how much was repaired on it in the past.

If you can get an engine from MB for 5k i would take that route than getting a recon from an unknown garage.

 

[daverake]

OP, is your mecahnic a mercedes specialist with knowledge and experience of these engines.

375k km, I would not say thats untelaible and that said you have no idea how much was repaired on it in the past.

If you can get an engine from MB for 5k i would take that route than getting a recon from an unknown garage.

I must admit the mechanic is not a Mercedes Specialist. When I got that engine fail I was like 5 kms from the village I live in, a relativiley small village, so I took the van to a mechanic I was told was good, but didn't have been there before.