mercedes sprinter COOLANT problem

piobhan

I have a 2002 413 cdi model. Im doing a bit of travelling around Europe. The coolant light came on the dash so i added some new coolant. Less then 500km up the road the coolant light is on again???
what could be causing this or how do you go about fixing such a problem, expensive???
thanks for any advice

When you next stop on tarmac leave the van parked for a while and then see if there are any wet spots on tarmac under the engine bay.

Check all the rubber hoses for crusty white stains. Squeeze all the hoses, they should feel quite firm and spring back. If you feel any damp bits underneath you have found your problem.

The coolant pump on your van is driven by aux belt and fitted on the front of the engine. Check if there are any signs of leaks there. You can use your finger to feel if anything feels damp there. When coolant pumps wears out there's a weep hole underneath that releases any leaking coolant.

You should also have a diesel fired heater on the left front corner of engine bay (right hand side looking from front of the van). Again, check for any signs of leaks underneath it and also near the feed to the cabin heater matrix (two black metal pipes going along the bulkhead).

In general just tighten all the hose clamps you come by, they might spring a leak when the hose compresses with age.

Finally, check radiator for leaks. It will most likely leak between the metal matrix and one of the ends. Again look for signs of leaks there.

Good luck.

piobhan

samih wrote: »

When you next stop on tarmac leave the van parked for a while and then see if there are any wet spots on tarmac under the engine bay.

Check all the rubber hoses for crusty white stains. Squeeze all the hoses, they should feel quite firm and spring back. If you feel any damp bits underneath you have found your problem.

The coolant pump on your van is driven by aux belt and fitted on the front of the engine. Check if there are any signs of leaks there. You can use your finger to feel if anything feels damp there. When coolant pumps wears out there's a weep hole underneath that releases any leaking coolant.

You should also have a diesel fired heater on the left front corner of engine bay (right hand side looking from front of the van). Again, check for any signs of leaks underneath it and also near the feed to the cabin heater matrix (two black metal pipes going along the bulkhead).

In general just tighten all the hose clamps you come by, they might spring a leak when the hose compresses with age.

Finally, check radiator for leaks. It will most likely leak between the metal matrix and one of the ends. Again look for signs of leaks there.

Good luck.

Hi samih, thanks for your reply, im currently in holland in the van(converted camper), I still have about 5000km planned on my trip before im supposed to head home.
I did what you suggested, firstly checked under the engine bay, no sign of leaks, checked all the hoses and didnt notice anything unusual (im not that great under a bonnet).
The radiator had a couple of specs on it but not much.
I rang a merc garage in Amsterdam today, called out to them and thay did a pressure test. Came back with no sign of leaks. The mechanic hadnt great english but he said it would cost around 3000 to fix, he said there was a problem between the engine and the ...... (then i said head gasket) and he nodded.
Not the news I hopped for(especially afer getting a new clutch and flywheel earlier in the week for the van) :mad:
I tried to explain I had still another 5000km planned and he said to keep checking the water/coolant level and to fix it then back in my own country.
Am i crazy to continue my travels or is it safe if i just keep an eye on the water level for the duration??
Any opinions welcome??

Hi again, sorry to hear the bad news that it will be expensive. You don't really need any extra expense while on vacation but it does sound like you have bit of a leak there. Sprinters are not really known for headgasket fail so you're quite unlucky. Hope it's not frost damage of some sort (make sure to keep enough antifreeze in the system).

One thing you could try is to drive with the radiator cap twisted on the first position (which stops the system pressurising). You may be able to nurse it home that way, as it's cold enough now, and it should minimize the coolant loss. You'll need to keep a close eye on the temp gauge to keep it at around 90 degrees (<100 deg C) on long hills to stop the system boiling over (when it's pressurised the coolant won't boil until about 120 deg C). At 90 deg there should be enough safety marginal to keep even the hottest parts of engine under boiling point.

I would almost try the cap trick to see if it makes any difference. If you happen to be going to Poland etc. you'd be able to get the hg changed there are much cheaper rate than in the West.

Good luck and greetings from a fellow Sprinter camperer :-)

piobhan

thanks, will try that cap trick and see if there is an improvement,
the mechanic in amsterdam maintained there wasnt a leak but as i said he had very bad english, he did a pressure test and no leak showed up and then told me it would cost a lot to fix and to bring it back to my country and make sure to keep plenty of water in system,
im in frankfurt now, after around 300 km the light was on again and had to refill it with a mix of coolant and water 50/50, I tried the cap trick then and il see does if get any further on that.
my trip has about 4-5k km left so hopefuly will be ok, im on a budget so its hard to know what to do with it:mad:

Hope it will work out for you. It's a very strange not to have leaks but still loosing coolant. Hope it's not going into your engine oil as that will not be good in the long run... Does the oil level stay put (i.e. not going up)?

I had a quick google and it seems that on some early CDi engines there have been cases of crack in cylinder head and coolant escaping via overflow at the back of the cylinder head. Not sure if 2002 is "early", but I suspect not. However, it does look like it could be the hg too. If the problems gets really bad you'll have to top up every few tens of kilometers.

This guy here seem to have similar problem and it turned out to be head gasket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_YB009qfGc

Sounds like you're heading to the general right direction (east) as regarding the cost of repair if it becomes necessary...

golfbgud

Friend of mine has a diesel sprinter and he is losing coolant - mechanc has eventually identified the problem as a cracked head. He's still driving it but has to refresh at regular intervals depending on types and lengths of runs (its a minibus).......

piobhan

Im as far as munich now, temperature stays constant 80 while driving but im continuing to lose coolant at regular intervals of around 250 - 300km, I passed by another mercedes garage just outside munich and pulled in to buy more coolant and see could they spread any light on the situation. The mechanic had average english but he was able to grasp the problem by explaining about the regular top ups of coolant every 300km.
In his opinion it was safe to drive while the temperature dosnt rise above 90.He then said it was 99% a head gasket problem and big job to fix.

I hear what your saying about cheaper repair costs east but that wasnt really on our way, we planned to head down to italy then back up through south of france , then spain and portugal then home through france.
I wonder is it only a matter of timebefore i have to top up coolant every 200, 150..100 kms