westyman

THANKS so much, everyone who contributed! I received a great cash offer on the car today so I allowed this headache to become someone else's. He has access to a trained Mercedes tech and repair shop, so hopefully between the two of them it they will get it repaired. My next foray into tiny diesels I think will be a VW product, that which I know much better.

AS previously mentioned, the SAM has been opened and in perfect clean condition inside. The injectors are firing but at the wrong time, the tech that ran all the tests for a prospective buyer said all that was wrong was the timing was out of syncronisation because it couldn't detect TDC. It smells of burning fuel and occasionally fires a cylinder just as you let off the key. I guess if nothing else the harness will have to come out and gone through, but I have very little time and it could easily sit months before I have the time. That's why I decided to sell.

Thanks for that tip. I have both connectors off a few days ago, just for a quick look. All pins looked clean.

Not yet - it takes me a couple days to stop hating this car enough to uncover it and look again. Maybe in a few days, armed with your info.

Thanks, good info, exactly what I needed. Both sensors measure very close to that number.

Of course. He was testing and watching as the engine was cranking, with a shop battery charger attached to the battery to ensure fast cranking speed.

Compression is very good and even, 430 psi all cylinders. When the tech had his tester connected the sensor was showing no signal.

Thanks. Did you read post #30 above? The tech who looked it over last week said the system was reporting proper fuel rail pressure, injectors opening but not firing at the correct time, and that TDC could not be found by the sensor, something about synchronization I think. No external leaks.

Ok. Crank sensor replaced with new Bosch part of the correct number. It measured exactly the same resistance as the old, btw. Still nothing. What next? Is it common to have a broken wire in the harness in that area? To check it I need a wiring schematic, where might I find one?

No reason for this - I DID read and I did NOT see a part number. I thought for some reason this forum might be different than The Samba forums. Thanks anyway.

Is there a part # I should search for? Is this correct: 0003117V002000 That's what I pulled up in EPC.

The PO replaced it - I think, but it's not clear if it is a new part or not. I did briefly see it when I had removed the intake a few weeks ago to [more easily] check compression. I noticed it had no bolt holding it in. Is that the same one I am thinking of? Do these fail often? Is there a way to verify it is defective? EGR had also been replaced by the PO.

UPDATE: I finally got ONE interested buyer to come look at the car and he brought his friend who apparently is a very good Mercedes tech. He hooked up a portable diagnostic system I've not heard of, but it had 'DAS' as the last part of the name. He went through just about everything and most everything cleared, most of what codes were stored were apparently as a result of different things being disconnected by the PO in trying ti figure this out. What he ended up with is the fuel pressure and everything is fine, injectors are firing too - but it is not firing at the right time and can't seem to figure this out. What next? Which part actually tells the ECU when to fire injectors?

Not sure of the process to erase all. I tried a few times to erase but not sure I did it correctly, if they erased they seemed to come back immediately The one I was sure went away was for the SAM. The alternator is free, the engine spins over fine. It died on the PO while driving and has been monkeyed with a bit in the two years before I got it. Not quite sure I understand your comment Francesco.

I'm quite sure the alternator turns, as I was watching all pulleys briefly while doing the compression test. A little history, the car died while driving for the previous owner 3 years ago.