My Poor Car

[adelaide J]

Had a P303 code appearing on the scangauge so off to MB London to find a bad exhaust valve on no#3 cylinder. I have 87000Km on the car. Has anyone else had this problem with there car. My is a 2009

[Huronlad]

There are discussions on sCOA about valves fouling up and failing. Some are using fuel additives to combat the problem with some success IIRC.What fuel do you use?

[adelaide J]

Some shell, but mostly esso91. I tried run seafoam threw a couple of tanks but the damage was already done.Car seem to run okay going to work and back, but if I started it when jt was at temperature it would throw a misfire on #3 cylinder. First time I had this was in April in Ohio and thought I was into some poor gas. Only have 50lbs compression in #3

[adelaide J]

Just got a reply from MBLondon. They are going to supply me a rebuilt motor free with exchange for my motor with a bad valve and worn cylinders. I have to cover the labour so I should have on the road for the Mistery Run

[MikeT]

That is good news, but it would be interesting to know what caused the problem in the first place.

[adelaide J]

A lot of people say that these engines seem to get a lot of carbon buildup and some seem to get exsessive valve guide wear.

[MikeT]

If that's the case, you should only use name brand gasoline ("top tier") with the new engine!

[Huronlad]

In John's case that did not help, Esso and Shell.In the US to get 91 octane plus you have to buy top tier and the Americans are still having failures. In some areas like Nebraska, the top tier do not even carry 91 octane at every station.I think the issue is caused by something else. Be it ethanol, the engine running too rich, some other design fault.Some owners have been running cleaner additives like MMO to hopefully keep the valves clean.

Edited July 19, 2013 by Huronlad

[adelaide J]

I asked Markus at MB London if he could find out any news on the cause of valve failure and the worn cylinder walls. I have always used 91 octane in this car so hopefully I will get some info

[MikeT]

Worn cylinder walls?!?

[adelaide J]

I was told told that the cylinders show excessive wear for 87000kms. Too bad I didn,t get some pictures

[MikeT]

Wow. That is disturbing.When I retired my Peugeot 405 after nearly 400,000 km, the cylinder walls still showed the original cross-hatching of the factory hone and there were no ridges at the top.

[adelaide J]

Got the rebuilt engine in London MB today .Hopefully running in my car by wednesday

[adelaide J]

Got my Smart home Friday with the rebuilt engine that smart London put in . It seems to run good and I do notice a little bit more pep in the old girl

[jwight]

Glad you are back on the road but I'll miss the Toyota "chase car."

[adelaide J]

Glad you are back on the road but I'll miss the Toyota "chase car."

Thanks John Hardly a chase car, I had a hard time keeping up to the smart cars in the Denver Mountains but still had a lot of fun

[falcon_1898]

Yikes! Will they tell you the cause of failure? Please do let us know.

[adelaide J]

I wish I knew, tried to get some info but nobody at MB London has any answers

[DeeDee]

Had a P303 code appearing on the scangauge so off to MB London to find a bad exhaust valve on no#3 cylinder. I have 87000Km on the car. Has anyone else had this problem with there car. My is a 2009

Had same thing happen to my 2006 with less than 63000 kms ouch!

[Lito]

Anyone would suggest using an additive as a preventative measure? Every how many gas tanks?I use Petro-Canada 94 or 91 when I can't get 94.

[dmoonen]

@ Lito for my diesels I carry a shot glass for my diesel additive. Every 2nd tank I give it a shot.

For the truck I use this, works for both gas and diesel vehicles and treats 400gal. I use this also for my Mercedes and Audi that run on premium fuel.

Edited September 13, 2013 by dmoonen

[Lito]

@ dmoonen - That sounds pretty good, as it would only cost about $1 per fill up on the 451 (gas). So... injector cleaner will do the job at cleaning the valves as well?

[MikeT]

The stuff I use in my diesel probably costs 20 cents per fill. For the gasser, there's no problem finding additives that can add a cleaning action to the combustion chamber, which should limit valve sticking. Using top tier (name brand) fuels will help too.

[dmoonen]

It removes the left over combustion gunk to prevent sticking valves. I did the math too with taxes:Big jug: $.98 a tank when you do use the product, and it will get you around 45 33L tanks from the big jug.Small jug: $1.37 a tank when you use the product, and you'll get 11.47 tanks from the small jug.Shop around and do the math, I like lucas products over all and bought the big jug just because of the amount of vehicles I own.

[Lito]

Thanks again. Only the Smart here, so I'd probably go for the small as I assume all this products also have a shelf life.