Since we're discussing Mercedes...

[civicious]

EGR's clogging up are super common on ANY diesel...

It's a diesel. They make soot. That's kinda their thing.



Sounds like y'all need to find a different mechanic, and I don't mean that in a dickish way (as I typically would). European cars, even the older ones (ESPECIALLY the older ones) shouldn't be worked on by someone who doesn't at least have a general idea of how they work, or has been through SOME sort of training on them. Letting an ASE-type mechanic start jacking with one of these cars can EASILY lead to higher-than-necessary repair bills, misdiagnoses, and fucking-more-stuff-up-than-was-fucked-up-in-the-first-place.

Like I said, not hating on your mechanic...but ANY mechanic that NOT ONLY doesn't think to check the EGR first, but on TOP of that swears up and down that it CAN'T be the EGR shouldn't be doing anything more than changing oil and wiper blades (if even that).

"It's misfiring, huh? Can't be the spark plugs. They're SPARK plugs, not FIRE plugs, and it's mis-FIRE-ing, not mis-SPARK-ing"

 

[92stoccord]

I agree wholly. Though, the egr thing worked for christmas and christmas only. They blocked it off, thought that their block failed, because a day later, it fell back on its face. So they blocked it off better last night, this fucker isn't passing exhaust gas. And its still falling on its face.

 

[civicious]

They blocked it off? How did they block it off?

The more you say about the people that are working on this for you, the more I doubt their abilities.

Did they check any of the other things I listed above?

 

[92stoccord]

They're not working on it for me, I'm pretty much third party. They made a block off plate to go on the intake side of the egr. They sell kits that are essentially the same thing, I guess? Like I said, this is all hearsay, and I rarely have my hands in it.

 

[civicious]

Ohh, that's right, it's a friend of yours. My bad. I've still got New Year's Mudbrain.

That's weird that the problem temporarily fixed itself and then started back up again...

Some other things to check, with the car in park (or neutral) under the hood they can try throttling it open by hand at the IP, see whether it revs freely or if it bogs without a load on it as well. That'd at least give a direction to check. Also try unbolting the exhaust after the downpipe and driving it then, I've seen ONE old diesel that had a slight exhaust leak for years, and somehow soot accumulated in the muffler and clogged the entire thing up - meanwhile the exhaust was escaping via the broken flex pipe coming off the downpipe. The customer had the exhaust leak repaired, and immediately after that it experienced poor power/acceleration - I spent a few days chasing various crap until I noticed the fresh welds on the exhaust, so I unbolted the exhaust to poke around and notiecd an abnormal amount of soot buildup in the pipe AFTER the weld, but not BEFORE it. Called the customer and they said 'Oh yeah, we just had an exhaust leak fixed, I didn't think that would affect anything". Hooked up a 'Wil-Built Special Tool' that I use for pressurizing and reverse-purging heater cores and put 150psi to the exhaust, and it blew out a FUCKLOAD of soot all over the parking lot. Car ran great after that.

That was the only time I've ever seen that happen, but it's entirely possible.

How'd the linkage and fuel filters look?

 

[92stoccord]

Ran a liter of lubromolly diesel purge, changed the injector to injector return lines (1/8th fuel line) replaced both the inline and the screw on fuel filter, and replaced the bearing/spring in a banjo-like return line bolt. This did the trick.

Knew it wasn't the exhaust, because this was one of my suspects, and it was pretty nasty after the down pipe, and he had already bought new exhaust pipes/mufflers for it, so we cut it off. Going tomorrow to get the new exhaust put on. I figured diesel purge would do wonders, but every time I went to napa, they'd be like we dont carry that, until I went in and said I need 2 bottles of LM2005, please. They said I'm the first person to have ever bought it from that store. Had them at the warehouse, I had them in my hand the next morning. All is right with the world... At the moment.