Bag of Spanners

[greatw]

Morning!
I have an interesting problem with my 1999 S500......
Left it for a week whilst on holiday. There was a slight rattle coming from the exhaust at that time. When I started up after the week away, the rattle was a bit worse but, more interestingly, after a couple of minutes, the engine started to get lumpy as though one or two cylinders were misfiring!! The car now sounds much louder and the lumpyness appears to be related to engine load i.e when the throttle is floored, it makes the engine lumpier and it stays that way.


Any suggestions before I go to the stealers?

Please excuse the rather confusing description. Bit early in the morning to figure this one out

Cheers
Alex

 

[wireman]

Exhaust manifold/downpipe bolts loose?

 

[greatw]

Wow!!
That was quick!

That was my initial thought as well wireman but would that cause the misfire??

I have had suggestions that it may be the cat but when they want on my Granada Cossie years ago it sounded like a babies rattle where as this is much more metallic.

 

[greatw]

Quick update!!
Turns out the cats on one side had failed and the matrix was blocking the exhaust!!

Getting them replaced Friday so heres hoping.....

 

[greatw]

Well, it just gets worse :-(
The cats have been replaced, so has the MAF and I still have a misfire on the left hand bank of cylinders.

Dronsfield had a look at it (and changed the cats) and suggested it might be the spark plugs although it is not due for an A service for 3500 miles!

Could it be that the plugs have failed? Another thought was the coil. Does this sound likely and would it only cause one bank to run badly?

Suggestions on a postcard please!

 

[television]

I doubt very much if it is plugs, they go a long way these days, coils banks fail quite often

 

[greatw]

Thanks Malcolm. Where are the coils located these days. Been a few years since I've looked at this sort of thing! Are they accessable without taking the engine cover off?

 

[television]

Just lift the top cover up at the front and pull, the rear section lifts up and off.

The coil packs are bolted along the top of the engine, you only need to buy one.

You could take the sparking plug leads off one by one to find the faulty one.

You use an open ended spanner across the top of the rocker covers to prise the sparking plug caps off, this way you do not damage the coil packs by pulling the lead out

they are all the same

http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.as...635722.636&CT=M&cat=07N&SID=15&SGR=060&SGN=03

 

[greatw]

Thanks Malcolm. Now I do feel old! Come back the days of 1 coil bolted to the inner wing!!

Dronsfields checked it out and it is the entire bank thats misfiring. Does each bank get its power from a common supply or is the loom split off further upstream?

 

[television]

This is not going to be a coil pack failure then if its the whole bank out, it will be a sender possibly camshaft.

Has the car been read for fault codes

 

[greatw]

Apparently so.
The whole bank is misfiring with No2 being the worst!
Dronsfields were ready to change the plugs but I didn' think that would cause such a major problem.
The garage from which the car was purchased 2 months ago are washing their hands of the whole thing but I'm not going to just sit back and let them do that, however, I'm looking at fixing it as running with cylinders spitting fuel into the exhaust will damage the new cats so teh car is laid up.

 

[greatw]

The plot thickens...
There is no compression in no2 cylinder and it looks like the valve isn't closing properly! The head is comming off to check this out.

I cannot see the cat failure causing this sort of damage or am I simply optomistic?

 

[MotardMan]

Nasty. Have they done a leak down test? If No2 is misfiring, then that could be caused by a vlve, but what has caused this problem, and when EXACTLY did it start? Are the supplying dealers aware?

 

[greatw]

MotardMan, the car had been slightly lumpy for a couple of weeks the last couple of days of this time there was a rattle comming from the cats. It was 3000 miles off a service so I figured it probably needed plugs and I would get that sorted whilst it was in for its service. Then was parked up for a week whilst I went to Egypt. Got back and it started ok but the cats were rattling more than when we left.
The dealer I bought the car from (Non MB) have been made aware and are not interested saying the car only had a 31 day warranty as they are a trade centre. I have spoken to trading standards who say this is irrelavent as they sold the car to a member of the public, they advertise on Autotrader so are therefore NOT trade only. I am looking at pursuing this further however, I spoke to the mechanic yesterday who is working on the car (Dronsfields - Great guys. they are keen to get the car running properly!) and he said there is no way to determine when the valve problem started and that it is "one of those things"

Spoke to MB customer services who were hinting that they would chip in for the repairs however I would need to take it to an MB dealer. I can't afford £100 p/h to diagnose the problem and anyway, the head is off now :-(

Waiting for a call to confirm there is no further damage. Hope not as this is going to cost a few quid!!

 

[MotardMan]

Well, I'm sending you all the good luck and best wishes I have left to spare.

I bought my E320C from an Autotrader dealer, and they are STILL refusing to fix the a/c even though the car was advertised with it as a working feature, and on inspection they promised to sort it for collection. Of course on collection it was not sorted and I got a verbal go ahead to have it fixed. Wisely, I got it inspected before I paid for the fix...... £800 estimate to sort it out and they are now refusing to deal with me by email or phone and I am having to take them to court to get the repairs done.

My sympathies are with you. It may seem horrible now, but in the end you'll be so glad that Dronsfield fixed it. Keep remembering why you bought the car and try not to let it eat away at you too much......

Best Regrds,

 

[greatw]

Thanks for that MotardMan. I do keep trying to remember why I bought the best car in the world but all I can remember is that I never had ANY issues with Lexus even at 190000 miles. Turned out I'd been driving with the rear suspension half collapsed for 3 months but you could not tell!!!

Anyway, should hear later this week what the outcome is. Fingers crossed theres nothing else wrong!

Regards
Alex

 

[MotardMan]

Ahhh, but did the Lexus have any soul?

Keep thinknig of why you sold it, and how you arrived at the wheel of the best car in the world.

I wish you luck, and that you get the result you need.

 

[greatw]

This is getting ridiculous. They've had teh head off and decided that the valves are fine and that it is a problem with the valve lifter hydraulics. I also just found out that teh mechanic has not worked on a w220 v8 before so it is taking longer than expected (which I can live with) I am geting a bit concerned that he may be in over his head - not being disrespectful, just realistic.

As for the Lexus, it may not have had the kudos of an MB but as with most Toyotas, it just did what it said on the tin!

 

[BlackC55]

The bore wear and rings must be measured also as broken cats can wear out cylinder bores premeturely as the ceramic particles of the cat can make there way back up the exhaust and inside the cylinder and do the damage.