Hi Scotty,
Could not find a similar situation in the Forum so I´d like to ask you for your opinion. Really enjoy your videos!
I have a Mercedes from 2011. C220CDI Automatic.
I bought it with very low mileage, 2 years ago with 50.000 Km and now has 126.000 Km.
I´ve treated the car always very well... the engine mostly.. but since one year ago I have a very strange problem.
The main problem is only in cold weather and when the engine has completely cooled down.
When I start the engine it starts without any issue whatsoever and the engine runs very normal and fine, but when I then put it in Drive and try to drive away or even not driving away by keeping my foot on the brake, the engine does not seem to be able to resist the pressure and the engine cuts.
If I leave the car running idle for 5, 10 or 15 minutes (depending upon the cold), it usually manages to drive away with some noticeable primary difficulty, but it runs and when I have driven for about 10 to 25 Meters, the issue is completely gone, that is, until the next day in cold weather and the engine has completely cooled down again.
I have been to the dealer, I brought the car there at night and left it outside until the next day and I came to look at the problem together with the mechanic.
The mechanic however drove the car away backwards (which I never do) for about 3 meters and it simply drove away without any issue nor even something noticeable of the primary difficulty of not being able to deal with the pressure... After having cut out for months now.....
Then going forward it also drove without any issue whatsoever.
Just my luck..!? Bring the car to the dealer for a very persistent problem and then there is no problem...;)
He looked at all levels for any fault codes and everything looks 100% fine. No issues whatsoever.
There is something that I believe is connected to this issue.
The first time it happened (a year ago), the car gave many error codes: EPS, ABS, power steering, cruise control at least, and these functions were shut down.
This lasted for about a week and a half and just before I visited the dealer for regular service and to have them look at the issue as well, the codes cleared on their own and completely disappeared.
This dealer however conned me for various things and told me it´s something which it clearly is not. I´ll spare you the details.
About 2+ months ago, I got all these same codes again and the problem persisted for a week and disappeared on its own.
It did however, only once up til now, have a relapse that lasted for about 5 seconds...... and hasn´t come back since.
After getting these codes again I got the cold ´driving away problem´ again which is exactly as last year so the car is not having these issues in warmer weather.
From the day I have this car, I use the injector cleaner every 10.000 Km and also one for diesel cleaner (seperately obviously..).
I also had the engine cleaned at more or less 60.000 Km. The problem arrived at about 115.000 Km.
I thought it would be a good enough idea to have the engine cleaned when it isn´t really dirty, so to avoid any potential stuff that might not dissolve.
See, the car hadn´t driven much so it has different circumstances as cars that did.
For instance, I wined to Mercedes in the beginning that I felt that the car went into slip ridiculously easy and I thought the car was badly balanced. The tires looked in perfect order.
When I brought the car for my first time maintenance Mercedes gave me a call. They said, listen man..! You should really change your tires.... I said, why?! What are you talking about, the tires are perfectly fine.
They said, well.... We have never seen this before but your tires are 11 years old.... The other owner must have driven very carefully...
Well, that´s something I also didn´t see before....
So the tire profile was very good but the rubber was hardened out and so it became quite slippery on the road...
Gear box oil has been changed at 60.000 Km and again at around 115.000 Km but I´m not really sure of that because that dealer is really a proffessional Mercedes Con man.
At any rate, a very peculiar issue and interesting to see that it dissipates the issue when driving backward first.
Love your channel and hope you have a crystal ball.
so the engine almost stalls when cold and accelerating from a stop?
It needs to be diagnosed using a diagnostic scanner by someone who knows what they're doing. Sounds like it's getting starved of fuel, which could be a fuel pump problem, sensors, fuel injectors, or numerous other things. Did you change the air filter? Dealers are only interested in selling you more parts and services. What you need is an experienced mechanic, and unfortunately for you , Mercedes are really complicated and even less mechanics know what to do with diesel engines.
By the way you don't need injector cleaner AND diesel cleaner (whatever that is) every 10k km . You're wasting money.
Hi,
The following is not really correct: ´so the engine almost stalls when cold and accelerating from a stop?´
Only in cold weather and only at cold start, the engine cuts when trying to drive away but not in reverse and when having driven in reverse, then going forward is no longer an issue.
Air filter and diesel filter have been changed.
strange. Almost sounds like a transmission issue.
Hi,
I found the culprit.
I checked the battery and alternator which were good. I changed the Diesel filter and opened up the old one which was completely clean.
I then used injector cleaner and the problem almost completely disappeared.
It´s the injectors.
Before buying this car, I looked up the common issues this particualr make is known to have and what I could find is that this engine hardly has any problem at all, apart form the injectors..... and so it is the same with me.
Thank you for your time