Hi everyone.
This is my first post here. I recently bought a 2003 E320 CDI estate. It had an issue with heavy smoke, especially on hard acceleration. This could sometimes cause the engine to go into limp mode. The injectors were checked and found to be OK. However, the signs of "black death" were visible around the tops of the injectors and on the wiring loom. The injectors had been removed by a garage and double washered when in the ownership of the previous driver. My son reseated the injectors with a single washer and the car ran perfectly with no obvious smoke. We thought the problem was resolved. however, there was a hint of "chuffing" and black oily residue was apparent once again. Obviously we didn't want to leave the car in this state, so the injectors were removed once again, cleaned and double washers were fitted. This completely cured the "chuffing", but the black smoke returned, quite dramatically. Coincidentally, the ABS and ESP fault lights are now on. We assume a sensor has failed, but haven't checked for a fault code, as yet.
The other big issue is that, for the first time, the gearbox is behaving erratically. the car appeared to be stuck in 2nd gear on it's first test run tonight. I performed a gearbox reset, as in a Youtube video (15 seconds with accelerator fully depressed). The car then drove normally, I was relieved because I thought the gearbox must be OK. However, when I accelerated hard out of a 30mph limit, the car smoked very heavily and the gearchanges became erratic. I tried to join a roundabout engine revs raised to 3,500 by the car only slowly moved onto the roundabout, as if in some sort of limp mode, yet still revving quite high. I found that the manual gear selection, by pushing the gear lever to the left would not work and neither would the S/W selection button. This strange drivetrain behavior appeared to be brought on by the hard acceleration and consequent heavy smoke production. I performed another 15 seconds gearbox reset and the car drove normally again. I am confident that firm acceleration would bring on heavy smoke and erratic gearbox behaviour once again.
I apologise if this description of events is not ideal. My son has the technical knowledge of cars, I am merely a driver.
Could anyone confirm my suspicions that the injector fuelling problems (and hence heavy smoking) is causing the gearbox issues, I am assuming (maybe incorrectly) that the gearbox behaviour is unrelated to the ABS fault.
Also, should we be using single washers on the injectors (and if so, how do we avoid the "chuffing" black death problems), rather than double washers?
Thanks in advance.
This is my first post here. I recently bought a 2003 E320 CDI estate. It had an issue with heavy smoke, especially on hard acceleration. This could sometimes cause the engine to go into limp mode. The injectors were checked and found to be OK. However, the signs of "black death" were visible around the tops of the injectors and on the wiring loom. The injectors had been removed by a garage and double washered when in the ownership of the previous driver. My son reseated the injectors with a single washer and the car ran perfectly with no obvious smoke. We thought the problem was resolved. however, there was a hint of "chuffing" and black oily residue was apparent once again. Obviously we didn't want to leave the car in this state, so the injectors were removed once again, cleaned and double washers were fitted. This completely cured the "chuffing", but the black smoke returned, quite dramatically. Coincidentally, the ABS and ESP fault lights are now on. We assume a sensor has failed, but haven't checked for a fault code, as yet.
The other big issue is that, for the first time, the gearbox is behaving erratically. the car appeared to be stuck in 2nd gear on it's first test run tonight. I performed a gearbox reset, as in a Youtube video (15 seconds with accelerator fully depressed). The car then drove normally, I was relieved because I thought the gearbox must be OK. However, when I accelerated hard out of a 30mph limit, the car smoked very heavily and the gearchanges became erratic. I tried to join a roundabout engine revs raised to 3,500 by the car only slowly moved onto the roundabout, as if in some sort of limp mode, yet still revving quite high. I found that the manual gear selection, by pushing the gear lever to the left would not work and neither would the S/W selection button. This strange drivetrain behavior appeared to be brought on by the hard acceleration and consequent heavy smoke production. I performed another 15 seconds gearbox reset and the car drove normally again. I am confident that firm acceleration would bring on heavy smoke and erratic gearbox behaviour once again.
I apologise if this description of events is not ideal. My son has the technical knowledge of cars, I am merely a driver.
Could anyone confirm my suspicions that the injector fuelling problems (and hence heavy smoking) is causing the gearbox issues, I am assuming (maybe incorrectly) that the gearbox behaviour is unrelated to the ABS fault.
Also, should we be using single washers on the injectors (and if so, how do we avoid the "chuffing" black death problems), rather than double washers?
Thanks in advance.