C270 CDI, intermittent cutting out of engine

[ktoon]

I have a 51 plate C270 CDI that has recently been plagued with a fault that cuts the engine out (sometimes at high speed!!) It generally restarts but recently I had to travel home on the back of an recovery truck. The main dealers are struggling to find out what is wrong. Has any body had the same problem with their car, and if so, what was the fault??? any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[psmart]

Hi Ktoon,

...can you give us more information, such as mileage, how the fault occurs, what are the symptoms (if any) before it cuts out, does it cut out or does it just limit your speed/revs, ask the dealer to tell you what are the fault codes being read out of the engine ECU and the Gearbox ECU.

Some of us on the forum have this engine in different body shells, so we may be able to help, the more info you give us, the more likely someone may have come across the problem.

 

[ktoon]

Hi psmart,

The most recent answer they gave me was that it was the Electronic Ignition Switch (EIS), they replaced this but not 150 miles later it did the same thing. They now have the car back and are saying it is a sensor that reads the EIS, I have to say I am not convinced!!!!

 

[caiman]

cut out problem

I also own a c270,my wife was driving the other day and the car cut out,the car turned over but wouldnt start, just as the aa turned up it started again,he put a computer on it and it showed no faults,she then made her way home and it happend again,but started again after a while,I have know been told it could be a fuel pump relay,hopefully this may work if not camshaft sensor,hope this may help

 

[television]

Crank shaft sensor or cam shaft sensor, the crank shaft sensor is the most common and the easiest and cheapest to try, from Bosch £80

 

[HelpThisDude]

I had the same problem. It was the crank shaft position sensor. The reason it is so hard to diagnose sometimes (and true in my case) is that the sensor fails intermittently and never when cold. This happened to my car (cutting out) five times, but it was only logged once, fault description was something to do with mismatch between camshaft and crankshaft positions. Once changed car has been good for last few years.

 

[jibcl500]

Or could it be item 6 in the picture, this switch if faulty wont show on star as its not on the can bus.

jib

 

[Alex Crow]

Or could it be item 6 in the picture, this switch if faulty wont show on star as its not on the can bus.

jib

Not the same on a W203 though, I would go with the crank sensor as first guess - there are no electrical fuel pumps on this car BTW.

 

[jibcl500]

Not the same on a W203 though, I would go with the crank sensor as first guess - there are no electrical fuel pumps on this car BTW.

Sorry my mistake got it in my head it was an ML!!!! DOH!

jib

 

[Steve@Avantgarde]

When it cuts out does it say anything like EPC electric power control visit workshop?

Or does it just cut dead.

 

[caiman]

tried a new fuel pump relay,sadly has not worked,going to try crank shaft position sensor know,also spoke to someone else who had same problum,and thers turned out to be a fuel filter change so Ill try that as well.

 

[dswhitehouse]

My ML270 CDI had a similar problem where it would just cut out and die. This only happened when the car was under load, ie accelerating on the motorway. Changed the fuel filter and it was fixed. I had only fitted a filter 4 months previous but it was a pattern part and, seemingly, people have problems with non original fuel filters on that engine.

 

[Steve@Avantgarde]

Does the engine crank after the engine cuts out?

Have you had a STAR diagnosis test done? If so what fault codes were stored?

It sounds like there is a lot of guessing going on and not a lot of diagnosis. Information is key to finding out what is wrong and carrying out methodical diagnosis, not doing so results in a lot of wasted time and wasted money.

 

[Alex Crow]

.........tried a new fuel pump relay,sadly has not worked................

This car does not have an electric fuel pump, nor does it have a fuel pump relay.

As Steve says, guessing will not help, you need an expert with Star...

 

[WG M-B]

On some of the early 611/ 612 engines there were hardware faults in the engine ecu's. This fault logs in as camshaft/ crankshaft synchronisation.
They randomly cut out for no apparent reason.

 

[Newalan]

I have a 51 plate C270 CDI that has recently been plagued with a fault that cuts the engine out (sometimes at high speed!!) It generally restarts but recently I had to travel home on the back of an recovery truck. The main dealers are struggling to find out what is wrong. Has any body had the same problem with their car, and if so, what was the fault??? any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

This is a long shot, however way back I had a Ford Granada V6 which used to cut out for no reason and few seconds later it would start and off I go.

It did cut on dual carriageway twice at high speeds too, the car went to Ford garage 3 times and they could not find electrical or fuel problem. In the end I decided to run the fuel tank almost dry and removed the fuel tank. Using a torch I had a good look inside the tank and found the problem.

The previous owner must have been using fuel additive (probably Redex) and he had inadvertently dropped the cardboard seal from the additive container into the tank. Every now and then this object found it's way under the fuel pick-up pipe and got sucked up starving the engine and of course as soon as the engine stopped it dropped down again and business as usual.

You may want to investigate? Maybe the dealers have camera they can insert in the tank without having to remove the tank?

 

[Uncle Benz]

Very unlikely to get anywhere without a star diagnosis, as has been mentioned. Likely a rail pressure fault stored IMO. Faulty injector can do this, as can rail pressure monitoring/control. Get the codes read first.

 

[steve33]

hi i have a 51 plate c270 cdi and on saturday for the first time my car cut out wile i was accelerating i came to a stop restarted and run fine until i did it again and it stopped again when i plug it in the only fault it said was fuel pressure switch im guessing that is only because engine cut out so any ideas on what could cause it to cut out

 

[WG M-B]

If it cut out on acceleration then it's probably a hp pump fault or excessive injector leak off

 

[Andrew Louw]

Hi Guys, I too had the same issue where my vehicle was cutting off in mid stride however after considering going through a process of elimination I decided to begin by putting injector cleaner into the tank and immediately the car began releasing dark clouds of smoke. This lasted for short while but proved to be the solution to the problem.