Sprinter diesel problems...

I've owned a 2004 Sprinter 2500 for about 8 months now and have a reoccurring power loss problem. The van will abruptly loose power to about 25% of normal. This usually happen at freeway speeds and results in a drop of speed to about 35 MPH. It’s scary. The temp fix is to pull to the side of the road and shut the Sprinter off, wait a minute or two and then restart it. I’ve had it to the dealership several times and they always replace an O2 sensor and tell me it’s fixed.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

I've heard of this problem before in a CTD truck which usually turns out to be a bad crankshaft position sensor...

I guess the trouble is that it could be any number of things but the dealers are unable/unwilling to troubleshoot the condition. And what needs to happen is to start changing out parts until the problem goes away and that is unlikely to happen without a strong offense against Daimler Chrysler.

Thanks for your input!

Try driving with your traction control on/off. I'm not saying that this is the problem, but the traction control will severely limit your power if it senses wheel slip. But aside from checking for trouble codes, there isn't much you can do.

Hi. I have been experiencing exact same problem over the past week [3 times, once when I hit sharp bump in road.] Mine is 2000 model Mercedes Sprinter 313cdi, manual transmission with 130000km. Seems like rev limiter malfunction,[this is active while sitting stationary and is normal function] Hope to get it to mechanic with Scantool in next few days.

A few days and good look around the engine bay seems to have been worthwhile.Got my mate to pump throttle pedal [need assistant because of electronic throttle] and checked all rubber inlet ducts & found 1" longcrack in duct between intercooler & throttle body which was only evident with the minimal boost available with van stationary. Renewed hose which came as an assembly with short angled hose off intercooler and connecting housing which holds air temp sensor - cost about AUD$200. I have done about 200km since repair and overall performance seems sharper and fault has not returned. Computer must hold some code in memory and revert to "limp home mode" as problem only arose on light acceleration at middle RPM & low boost.

Thanks for your post .I used to live in Bermuda however now i am in Alaska for years i have struggled and kept pressing on working on vehicles outdoors in the driveway in -30 taking heads off and diesel douching them dropping the pan busting out the ring land cleaner... you get the drift. now i am the owner of a Sprinter van. i had thought of tightening my belt for another year however God had other plans for me ... i have always endeavoured to take care of anything and anyone reasoning there is a reason for their presence ...it seems to me that is why i am here now.

this one inch crack in the duct formed hose must have shown up on a scan or vacuum test . if it is the common denominator and the techs are switching out air temp sensors....seems someone needs to roll it past their factory tech rep...they wont pay you a dime for figuring out the problem however at least it may keep a sudden "sensor unavailable" at the world wide distribution centers for the part,...and maybe just a few Irate customers.

The college I work for purchased two 2006 Sprinters for our program. In the course of four months, and 30,000 miles, one Sprinter has experienced the “Sudden Power Loss” problem once, and the other one has done it no less than FIVE times.

In all cases, the problem was traced to the “Turbo Resonator”, which is nothing more than a small muffler that attaches to the output side of the turbocharger, prior to the intercooler.

This stupid little part, which lives in a high temperature environment, and has to contain the boost pressure produced by the turbo, is made of PLASTIC!!! It has a two piece body which is bonded together with an adhesive.

It seems that the current batch of “Turbo Resonators” were not bonded together well enough to survive in the environment they are installed in. When the seal at the seam fails, boost pressure is lost, and the computer thinks that a catastrophic turbo failure has occurred; …….and it drops you into a “Limp Home Mode”, as it’s program demands.

The insidious part of the failure is that since it is a seam that is leaking, it can be leaking badly enough to make the computer think that there has been a catastrophic turbo failure, and still not be visually obvious when the engine is off.

Chrysler-Daimler knows about this problem, but is taking NO action: …….They are not even sending out service bulletins to their dealers on this issue. They are, instead, trying to convince each user that they have experienced a “One-in-a-Million” failure.

This problem, and more specifically the way they are handling it, is going to cost them! ……..It has already resulted in my college deciding to purchase 25 Ford vans instead of Sprinters. (As was originally planned.)

check turbo resanator for splits and leaks, also intake hose between inter cooler and intake manifold if all is ok its a 95% chance you have faulty EGR/mixing chamber valve. part#MOPAR5166850AR. ttfn.

I Went back (7 !) times for the same problem, my van is there since 8-26-2006 and I have no van. I do not know what to do any more.
C. bento

c bento I am95% sure your problem is EGR control valve MATCHLESS

If it is possible would you please send the information in your msg to : DaimlerChrysler Motors ; Customer Center; POB 21-8004; Arburn Hill; MI; 48321 - 8004: I looked for my post on this thread and could not find it. I had power loss while trying to pass an 18 wheeler - went from 65 down to 45 and had an another 18 wheeler pass me on right and if I didnt slam on breaks then we would have had a 3 way tangle with cliff on right and major drop off on left. Would appreciate your time and effort on this to try and get some action. Roy King 38 Aol com Written this way as this site will not allow url's

Sprinter power loss = 95% resonator. for fix and repairs etc see the info posted on View- Navion at yahoo group dot com. You will be surprised at how much of a problem this is.

Roy I have had a problem in the last week or so 87000miles I refueled after a 200 mile trip 75 MPH. Returned to the interstate resumed 75 about 5 miles in the speed dropped to 65 with the tach at 25 and holding. This stopped after I switched it off and restarted it! This week I have noticed surging while under acceleration. I also noticed the turbo surging spinning up and down. I examined the box on the pressure side of the turbo and found no cracks. I couldn't find the yahoo site you referred to Help!!
Thanks
Mike

My 2004 Sprinter with 42,000Miles is doing same thing. Started at 30,000 for 1 time & stopped after restart. Happened again at 35,000 & stopped after 1 restart. Then happened all the time at41,000. Techs are stumped. lThey have changed the EGR 2times, the resonator 3times, next was catalytic converter change, then the Turbo Charger, in between was the fuel filter & the air filter. Non of these fixed the same problem you guys have been having. They also checked for leaks in hoses & interduct. Its been 2 wks & they are still trying to answers from Dymler . The Sprinter Rep has been reluctant to call. I am thinking Lemon Law , its been 2 months with the Sprinter in the shop every Friday. Help Roadkingdude

Latest update, Dodge dealer had a sprinter tech flown in from California & he diagnosed a crack in the intercooler, they changed it & it fixed it. HooRa finally

well ive been having a problem with my sprinter too......30,000 miles and it start out all good in the morning running a cold engine or affter a good long cool down break.........gains speed till about 60mph then just goes DEAD.......and all it is aftet that is pedal to the metal an 45mph......... uphills it wont drive unless u shift the trasmission into 2nd and rpms never go over 2500......NEVER.......soo then the only thing to do is pull over and shut off the engine wait about 2 min and start it and go... then again same story gets to 60mph and dies.....rmps drop and never rise again.....so there it is another stupid problem with stupid sprinters.....i guess oubviously not everyone having these problems but i bet its pissing every one that is.... soon the 2007 sprinter is coming out and im looking forward fo purchasing that one hoping that they already have taken care of this issue befor it arises but now the only problem is that i just dont know what in the world to do with this one that barely holding on......there not vary many people that actually undersrand these cars and how to work with them and this issue but i sure hope that i get ths problem fixed so if theres anyone who can help please let me know.....thnks...

Problem could be the resonater - there is a smoke test that dealer can do and if you feel oil on bottom of resonater - (check when cool) - that is it. Go to view-navion@yahoogroups dot cam ( written this way as this site does not let you put any url's in,

Mike, sorry been on 52 day trip in our sprinter RV 06 chassis - my resonater went out at 20,320. New metal one out now - see info at
view-navion@yahoogroups dot com - you can find info on the fix to most power problems - no D/C didnt do this and they are not going to fix it for the first chasiss - true 07's may have something new but I doubt it. I am afraid that when MB bought dodge the warrenty went down and it is full crap. How crappy they are is that one of our members had a spare resonater and he used it to repaired his van on the road. Took the bad one in to dealer to trade for a new one. Dealer would not do it - said that the D/C policy was to call a tow truck and have it towed in and the dealer was to replace it. Look at this dumn policy and how much more it costed D/C than the $42 dollars trade of a resonater. That's why D/C is losing money. Roy

Am I to guess that the moral of this thread is to avoid the Sprinter at all costs?