I have recently been having problems with my Mercedes C220CDI. After getting opinions from 3 different garages I am informed that all 4 of the fuel injectors need replacement. This seems amazing to me and the thought appears to be that it has been caused by contaminated fuel. If this is so I wondered how common a problem this is and what can be done to prevent it happening again.
Alternatively the garage could be taking me for a ride, I suppose.]
Has anyone else had problems with bad fuel and do I possibly have any recourse against the filling station I bought the fuel from before the problem became apparent?
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And how do you prove which one of the preceeding tankfulls caused the damage, if it was caused by bad fuel it could have been dumped in there years ago
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I think this would be really difficult to prove. It does happen though. I had a tankful of unleaded from Sainsbury's last week which made my car pink like crazy. Fresh tank of Texaco = no problem. Engine damage from the pinking would have been all my pleasure to pay for...
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One of the reasons I only use Brand X, and always pay with plastic...
Any problems with the fuel, Brand X can't wriggle out of it!
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Not quite clear here - did all 3 garages concur?
Given the cost of 4 injectors, it's probably worth taking the car to a specialist diesel injection company. Injectors won't cost any less but you'll be more confident the fault has been correctly diagnosed and fixed.
If any of the previous 3 garages install new injectors and the fault remains - who's footing the bill?
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Yes - thanks for that. The garage doing the repair IS a specialist diesel injection company. Interestingly they have quoted £195 per injector, the Merc agents quoted £250 (although they could not look at it until 9 August - there must be a lot of Mercs with faults). Nevertheless there will be little if any change from £1k.
Suppose I could soldier on and trade it in but I would lose more than £1k as soon as I drove another car off the forecourt.
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>>(although they could not look at it until 9 August - there must be a lot of Mercs with faults)
May not be a fuel problem then?
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Was mech1
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Brambob,
do you think these expensive problems you have had with your injectors could be related to your use of BIODIESEL?
On 4th September 2003 you wrote that you had done 3000 miles on 100% biodiesel and were considering alternate fills from then on.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=15...2
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Before spending that kind of money why don't you use a good trade supply injection cleaner first?
I had a chap tell me that the injectors in a Merc 307 d needed changing to get the emissions within the MOT acceptable limits but I paid him a tenner and he poured this stuff in (don't know what it was). I drove it up and down the A38 for about 10 miles and - problem cured!
It helps if you haven't got much diesel left in the tank so you get a rich mixture.
In the face of a grand, a tenner may seem like a good flutter to me.
Hugo
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