Sprinter diesel injectors

[steve171274]

I have a 313cdi 51 plate sprinter and have seen some worrying threads about diesel injectors and heater plugs not coming out out of the block as planned and costing mega money to conclude. Is it worth getting my mechanic to undo them and copperslip them or the like. I have 130k on the clock and have just had the turbo and tensioners done and now the fan stays on for long periods so that some thing else to pay for, if there is any preventative measures i'd be interested to find out.

Thanks steve

 

[Xtractorfan]

A 7yr old 130K is gonna ..in general.. have the problems that you are concerned about, so in a way it would be foolish to fix it if it aint broke....bearing in mind that not all cars have those problems ..In general the injectors tend to sieze up because they have been allowed to blowpast and build up carbon around the injectors, so basically a visual inspection of the injectors will show signs of blowpast..as for the heater plugs you really have to unscrew them to find out if they are seized

 

[steve171274]

I just wish that there was a list of parts to be changed that go at say 100k that lead to other bigger probs, like the cam belt tensioner and water pump bearing on a vw LT35 that fail and lead to the cambelt jumping and causing major expense. When my van was in a couple of weeks back at the local MB dealer with the whole front off having tensioners and the turbo replaced i'm sure that there were probably other inexpensive things like checking and changing known parts that fail at my vans time of life. If that had been done with my vw LT then it wouldn't have cost me all the time and money it did do when the water pump bearing collapsed. I just find it a little depressing that all sprinter mechanics know the parts that generally go but just wait for them to fail even though they could have suggested it at the time of other works ,you can guarantee that they will suggest to change a supposedly worn £100 + pulley over the phone when you can't see it and never will because it's covered by a load of coverplates and the 'old ones in the skip mate' or 'Here's your's here' although it could be any pulley they'd had waiting in the wings to show someone if they asked to see it,or am i paranoid!!.

Oh while i'm on, what would of happened to my old turbo that only had a slight whizzing, no loss of performance mind. Will some one of made a few quid out of it for the casting.Mine was a brand new replacement,i was never offer a choice of a recon which would of been a lot cheaper i suppose. Thanks

 

[Cnics]

Errrrrrrr, why did you have a new one then? or have i missed something?

 

[steve171274]

Errrrrrrr, why did you have a new one then? or have i missed something?

Possible scenario: I'm 300 miles from home it's 9pm and it's snowing. I lose power and pull over to the hardshoulder and call the AA they send out a tow truck that tells me he can't lift my weight and then i have to wait for ages to get a flatbed recovery. It's now 11pm and i'm sitting in a reception area of a recovery contractor 350 miles from home waiting to be relayed back home. I arrive back home at 4am in the morning the van is sitting outside the house .I go to sleep and wake up at 3pm and call MB they can fit me in in 4 days time i call my customer and tell him sorry i never got there today and promise i'll be there tomorrow. I call a van hire company £70 a day + vat for a sprinter i hot foot it round in a taxi and pick it up and spend the rest of the night transfering 1 ton of tools,equipment and materials into the hire van and pile it up on the floor as there is not the racking i have in my van. When i get back from work the next day i arrange in the dark the recovery of my van £150 to MB's yard .As the day my van gets looked at is friday i have to wait for work to commence on monday and it gets turbo'd up the next day tuesday . I then have to pick my vehicle up and return the hire van and earn money at the same time .The hire bill comes to £658 and the repairs to £1300inc (they will found loads of worn things when they have things stripped down) plus recovery and taxis and the lad i had with me wanted paying for all the hours he was with me.

This all happened to me but with a fully loaded VW LT35 when the water pump bearing failed and jumped my cam belt and stopped my engine running. Although at the time i couldn't afford to hire a van so stayed at home for the whole time and had to keep paying the lad his wages for not working.I barely afforded the new valves etc the vw wanted.

Maybe i have missed something. Your right maybe i should have just left it to whizz away for ever whats the worst thing that could happen?

Thanks for your helpful info i feel truly welcomed.