Are Used Mercedes Sprinters Worth It for Class B Buyers?

[VYRUS]

I’ve been accused of being a lot of things, but never AI. No, It’s just me at my grandson’s little league game, killing time.

 

[Santosha]

Sprinters are very reliable prior to 2007/8 and reasonably reliable after about 2016. The major issue is terribly engineered, EPA regulated injection of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF). Malfunction of any of the DEF system components such as DEF heater, pump, NOx sensors will give owners 10 engine startups for the issue to be addressed by the dealer.

It happened to my 2013 van twice on the return route from Key West Florida to Oregon in Texas. Total cost was almost $5K which I was able to recover it (dealer didn’t honor my warranty) by communicating first directly with Daimler Benz in Germany than US. One year later I received a decent bonus with additional 4 years warranty. Since than my Sprinter works great.

Best source for information is on the Sprinter Forum. Sprinter-Source.com

George would you be able to provide me the contact info you used to get your claim taken care of? I have this same issue with my 2014 Sprinter. The dealer that performed the service refused to cover the work telling me the sensor that was bad isn't covered. It cost me over $3000. I would really appreciate this information and possibly the wording you used? Thank you. Michelle. mchgall@comcast.net

 

[VYRUS]

We own a 2018 3500 Road Trek with the 3.0 Deisel and would say that I have done a lot of research on oil brands and maintenance needed to head off potential problems. If you are going to do a lot of stop and start city driving this would be a problem. If you are primarily using on highway and understand how the DPF system works you will be fine. As far as fuel mileage we get around 16mpg on avg with our unit weighing around 9,000 pounds and driving the speed limit. Oil makes a difference if using BIO and so does your driving habits. on the highway I have stopped worrying about Bio use. I installed a catch tank on the Oil separator hose (EGR Valve) to capture soot filled oil headed to the air intake. I use Motul motor oil at the time being because I started using Oil Geek for analysis and made a change to reduce wear and look for maximum change interval. Keep you DEF tank topped off as much as possible to avoid the crust build up in the tank. Crust may be the wrong word, but when you spill it and see the residue after it dries you will understand what I am talking about make sure tank lid is tight. I run additives in the fuel to help with lubricity and Cetane. Cetane helps with horsepower and you don't want the fuel pump to become a problem. While driving we use a monitoring device to watch exhaust gas temps, DPF percentage, average DPF regens, oil temp and CPU voltage. The device we use is called Blue Driver. Note: Some ware along the line our unit has had a software update, and we are at 150 miles average regen and it will regen while idling and if you shut off the engine during regeneration it will restart regen when restarted. I believe this programing is how Mercedes delt with the no start problem even though for me and mostly highway driving think the 400-mile interval of old would be better. Regeneration uses fuel to heat up the DPF and raises exhaust gas temps to around 1300 degrees. Mercedes fuel injection system to the DPF is not direct to the DPF like most but instead to the cylinders that can cause increased fuel dilution to the oil so keeping an eye on your oil level is important and oil analysis will tell you if there is fuel present. To summarize we love the Mercedes for the look, ride and by taking care and understanding the unit hope to get a lot of traveling

You got most of the high points correct, but because BlueTec diesels are so complicated, here’s a few details that expand on your explanation.
BlueTec diesels have an exhaust driven turbo. When the DPF is regenerating at 1300F, that heat is being pumped back into the turbo. Mercedes went cheap and did not water cool the turbo, or the Intercooler. The Intercooler’s job is to cool the hot air charge from the turbo. That hot air is not only going into the combustion chamber, but it also goes into the EGR valve, Intake manifold “swirl flaps”, and the EGR cooler. Because the PCV valve was so poorly designed, hot crankcase oil vapor is constantly coating the EGR valve, Swirl Flaps, and EGR cooler with oil. More frequent DPF regenerations, cause the turbo to run so hot, that it bakes the oil vapor rock hard in the EGR and Swirl Flaps. Excessive oil vapor from the PCV valve floods the Intercooler, causing it to be less efficient. MB even has 2 service bulletins about so much oil vapor over flowing the Intercooler and hydro locking the #6 cylinder. Which destroys the engine. Instead of fixing the cause of excessive oil vapor, MB redesigned the Intercooler to hold more oil vapor. Of course that didn’t work. MB also redesigned the PCV valve over 14 times, with the same results.
One issue is the type of oil MB insists on using. MB hides the data for their recommended Mobil One 5W/30 ESP oil. If you look up the testing data for any oil in a BlueTec diesel dealing with all of these difficulties, there’s some things that jump out at you, if you understand oil data. The important data is, NOACK volatility, HTHS (high temperature high shear), Sulfated Ash, and VI (viscosity index). For get what MB and all the oil pundits tell you. You can look it up for yourself and know for a fact, what’s the best oil for your engine. The very best oil should have a NOACK volatility below 4. The MB recommended oil’s NOACK volatility is 13.5. (13.5 is the.maximum the EPA allows.) The MB HTHS is 2.8. The best diesel oil is near 6. Sulfated Ash must always be at 1 or below. The ideal VI should be above 180. The MB oil is 130.
Now that you know what the technical numbers should be, the easy part is searching through hundreds of oil product data sheets. If you’re running B20 biodiesel, you’ll have additional issues that MB doesn’t explain. Other than they will not warranty engine failures caused by B20. MB doesn’t explain how B20 damages the engine.
Since the “know-it-alls” on Owners Forums love to argue about oil for which they actually don’t know anything about, I refrain from recommending specific oils. If you want a real eye full, read the legal notice on the MB factory website with their list of so called “approved oils”. Only MB could give you a list of “approved oils”, that they really don’t approve. I’ll give you one other clue, the very best oils are not on MB’s list of approved oils.

 

[GeorgeRad]

George would you be able to provide me the contact info you used to get your claim taken care of? I have this same issue with my 2014 Sprinter. The dealer that performed the service refused to cover the work telling me the sensor that was bad isn't covered. It cost me over $3000. I would really appreciate this information and possibly the wording you used? Thank you. Michelle. mchgall@comcast.net

I was exchanging messages with customer representative, took a while to reach a correct person. At some point I contacted Daimler Benz in Germany and was transferred to US. Customer Support | Mercedes-Benz