Good Day!
I recently bought a 2003 Mercedes-Benz C 180 Kompressor from a private seller. The car has 130k Kilometers and is a manual transmission. My wife hopped in and didn't press the clutch when starting, and the car lurched forward since it was parked in gear. Now the car won't start at all. I turn the key to the start position and absolutely nothing happens besides everything electrical coming on like normal. No engine noise whatsoever. A buddy of mine came over with a code reader and identified a camshaft fault and O2 fault, but they were deleted before I could write the code down (Yes, I know how dumb this was). Could the engine stalling cause a camshaft sensor failure which just requires a sensor replacement or can there be something wrong with the engine or starter? The car was working just fine less than two hours earlier. Thank you for the help and keep up with the great videos!
I tried tapping the starter while turning the key but no changes.
Tony
That's very unlikely that the sensors are damaged. When you turn the key to on position, do you hear a click? I would check the battery first. If that checked out, check the starter.
No click is present when I turn the key completely to the right. The battery seems to be working fine as the headlights don't go dim when I turn on all cabin equipment/turn the key to the right, but I try and get a jump. Thank you for the information!
It does not tell you the condition of the battery. Either load test the battery or jump start the car to find out.
Just tried to jump the car with no changes. I'll look into the starter now.
The camshaft sensor error was probably generated due to the fact that as long as the engine is not rotating / failed to start, the camshaft sensor is not able to be delivering the signals it is supposed to be delivering (since what it does is sensing engine rotation). No rotation = no signals from the sensor = the ECU generates the sensor error. But it is not the sensor´s fault that the engine wont start / rotate - the sensor in this case is just _indicating_ that the engine failed to start. Same with the O2 fault: as long as the engine is not running, the O2 sensor cannot deliver any meaningful signals, cause it is intended for sensing combustion emissions which on a non-running engine are non-existent.
As to the possible cause of the engine´s failure to start, it could probably be the starter relay, which could not stand the extra high starting currents (resulting from your wife´s attempt to virtually use the starter instead of the engine to set the whole vehicle in motion) and which relay has therefore probably departed prematurely. If you are lucky and your starter has extra protection via a fuse, this could as well be that fuse needing replacement, but most vehicles I know do not have such extra protection in the starter power circuit. In the worst case scenario, this could be some mechanical starter failure due to its having been mechanically overstressed.
/IMHO disclaimer goes here/
Thank you for the information. I looked into all the fuses that pertain to the starter and they are all good. I'll try to get a multi-meter to shoot the relay and then look into the starter if that is good.