Diesel sets egr fault every time it's driven, loses boost pressure.  New egr valve.  New boost pressure sensor.  Boost pressure reads very slightly above spec.  Atmosphere 996ish hpa, boost pressure 993hpa at idle.  Should be 983-988.  On a previous visit it set mass air flow sensor faults but had new air filters.  We reset learned values of air filters and hfm drift compensation.  Now it's an egr fault that pops every single time.  Egr actuation gets a serious change in hfm value, it passes all egr tests so it isn't a blocked cooler.  Talked to sprinter guys, they've seen it with egr leaks.  We start figuring on pulling the intake and whatnot but scope out the egr line from the manifold to the cylinder head.  Find out when intake was removed 27k miles ago for oil cooler seals, the gaskets on that egr line were not put in place.  It went a real long time before the computer decided that was a problem.

Intermittent stall at idle in gear on a c coupe, happens so sporadically it won't be possible to reproduce (every two weeks or so).  No codes.  Drives perfectly otherwise.  I talk to customer and get the feeling that it's electrical and killing power to engine control unit intermittently or something, but can't get past how it only ever happens in gear at idle.  I do a visual inspection and find overspray under it.  Not necessarily indicating a collision repair, it's mars red paint which is commonly defective and many of them have been repainted.  I start looking for more clues, pull an underbelly panel an  find the oil line from the turbocharger is leaking and the alternator is covered in oil.  Experience tells me that oil kills alternators.  Intuition tells me that the lin bus controlled alternator could be malfunctioning and loading the engine up a  idle in gear and stalling it.  We'll see.  

I made eight hours today.  First time in almost two weeks.

My mini ductor II is coming in handy.  I don't normally use it very often.  Maybe once a year.  Last week it was a suspension bolt the alignment guy broke, yesterday it heated a tool handle 10mm thick of round tool steel glowing orange so it could be bent.  Today it heated a broken off stud in a turbo housing so it could be removed when the double nut method only destroyed the threads and threatened to snap the stud again.  It was no match for heat and vise grips.

I love my mini ductor

Well, we cold snapped, got down to -22.  We gelled winter fuel, which just means our supplier has shitty winter fuel.  So three other guys and I were on the yard all day trying to get tractors running with 911 and a mobile frac heater.  Worked alright actually, and since the wind wasn't up it was actually kinda nice outside.

Interesting ECM failure yesterday too.  

Looked at a truck with a broken A/C belt and a low coolant level alarm.  Added coolant and connected the ECM to check the cal file, updated it since it was only 6 phases out, and now it revs on it's own. She hit 2500 RPM and the ISX red lines at around 2100.  Checked the turbo for passing oil, nope. Checked oil level, good and not fuelly, so I figured I got a bad cal file off of QuickServe.  Recalibrated it again, and it still does it.  Set a code this time though for engine exceeding redline.  Has the cutest troubleshooting information.  Step 1, code active? Yes. Step 2, was he driving it downhill? no? Replace ECM.

Love Cummins troubleshooting, it's actually really easy to follow.

I've never seen that troubleshooting tree. Kind of funny that they had to put that in there. I did have an ISX hit 2700 rpm on its own 3 times. Cal related. I then drove it 5,000 miles home.

yeah so it did turn out to be cal related.  updated a different tractor today and she's doing the same crap.

Called Cummins Care and they didn't want to help because it's related to quickserve and the only way to contact them is by email.

So now I have two trucks down for no reason.

Two trucks, two different laptops and two separate files from QSOL, and they don't seem to care.

And of course I don't have an older one file laying around.

Injector for cylinder one to repair cold start misfire on s550 after multiple spark plugs and coils on that cylinder failed to yield a differing result.  Passed compression test and wiring was good.  Made sense to pull the rail and throw one at it.

Knocked out some warranty services and on  customer pay.  Did front brakes on a glk.  Eagerly anticipating Wednesday's catered lunch.  I had two guys out today and stayed busy until four.  It was nice  to have the trainee back from cylinder head land... He has been doing them for two weeks now.

Well that is bullshit. PM on the way.

Did you get your situation sorted out there Coronado?

It's mother fucking friday.  Yes.


I am out of here for a week.  Taking off on a light road trip to OR and back.

Nothing yet. I haven't heard from anyone since I emailed you those two images.

Thankfully we have more trucks we can put into service, but it does kind of hold us back when that's the only thing on both trucks stopping them from sitting around all day, except, not idling.

I haven't tried pulling the cal off of QSOL again since I'm on days off until next week.

Lower intake on a 3.1 GM I couldn't talk the  tech into replacing the oil pump drive O-ring. This was at a Firestone store.

Pure fucking madness.  It's finally over.  An hour and forty five minutes later than it should have been.

So I got a customers Galaxie 500 up and running. Then I found out whoever did the trans swap put it together where 3rd and 4th are backwards. Fun times.

My son and I changes the front door hinge pins on his blazer...both sides.  No more rattling or wind noise!
And F the moron who designed them, damn sagging all the time doors.

First week back turning wrenches is over.  I feel like I've totally fucking lost it, but the reality is I'm doing just fine.  It's amazing what you forget in a year and a half.  I've found myself staring at stuff more than once that I've fixed 100 times before, and not remembering what the problem is.  Of course I still know how to troubleshoot it, but I'm starting at the beginning instead of jumping straight to the problem.  Looking at a bolt head and not knowing instantly what size it is.  Looking at my socket rails and not remember which socket was the 15.  I know it'll come back to me, but damn its making me paranoid.  At least everyone in the shop seems to be understanding that I've been out of it and lost my edge.

It will be like riding a bike, it will come back to you!  If you need side work by Winchester let me know.

Where did you go back to work at and what all new tools did you bring with you?Click To View Spoiler

I've been buried.

My small 3/8" air ratchet shit the bed again.  I threw $45 at it earlier this year.  It's  a very powerful IR ratchet.  I bought an SP brand tool that came very highly recommended from my Indy guy.   He said that they supplied Mac and Matco previously.  It's smaller, extremely fast, powerful and has an impact style action to it.  So far so good.

I took over a car from a less capable guy.  Intermittent engine CAN problem.  I narrowed it down to a cold soak triggering the problem and had to eliminate modules to see which one was doing it because the scope patterns looked fine.  Shifter was unplugged, no joy.  Steering column module was swapped (those fail a lot) with no change.  I figured out the drivers seat belt was causing the problem.  Unplugging it has seemed to fix it, as it never malfunctioned again.  I plugged it back in and it immediately failed.

We were extremely busy this past week.  Friday we were six techs down, with a very full schedule.  We did not get it all done, but today was light enough that we caught up.

We dealer traded for a $94k C63s AMG coupe.  Client was here to pick it up.  They backed it off the trailer and broke the front bumper splitter in several pieces.  That was fun.  I removed it so it could be delivered and we'll have to order parts..

SP makes some good stuff. I don't think they supplied Matco. They have a impact ratchet and on that you can unlock the head and clock to different position. They use to supply snap on with a 3/4 and 1" impact.

Cla 45 amg tow in no start.  Engine hydrolocked due to oil in cylinders.  Turbo popped a seal and a lot of oil was ingested.  Compression test is useless because of the oil in the cylinders.  It pegs the gauge.  Gonna have to ask mom what to do with it because it hydrolocked while it was running.  We don't have a good way to see if it bent a rod unless we pull the head.

My noob is doing head gaskets on an ML 63 amg.    Head bolt broke off four inches down in the block.  Suggestions?

We've got an oil leak. Oh, wait, what?
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Last time I checked a 4.0 doesn't use an oil bath breather.

Aircraft length drill bit then drive a torx bit in the hole that way it doesn't expand and see if it will turn out. Get a wooden peg that fits the hole and drill the center to use as a guide to keep it centered. They make transfer punches that are made like a roll pin punch but with a sharp point. If you had one that would work as a center punch.

What size head bolt? Broke because of over torquing or faulty bolt or stuck?

I never have any luck with extractors. On trick I've heard but never had to use was take a piece of pipe or tubing that will fit down the hole, then use a stick welder, run the rod down the pipe and weld pipe to bolt and turn it out. I have a feeling the bolt in your application may be a little too small for this to work.

That's pretty cool if it works.

I'm in Linden, what you got?  I'm going to have to do something to start bringing in some side money.  I took a hell of a pay cut.

We've been hella busy.  Back to 2 frac crews again with next to no yard time, and just about everything going wrong that possibly could.

Mostly services and small repairs, but today I get to figure out why a deck mounted tier 4 C13 is making oil  Sucks the way its mounted though...

Did you end up getting that cal to try out to see if it resolves the issue?

I've had more than a few leaking injector o rings on meui engines.

Used a long drill bit to bore a small hole in to broken stud.  Even with the bushing it got a bit off center so I didn't go very deep.  I used a t25 torx bit about 8" long and hammered it in to the bolt and backed it out.  Deck and heads look good, piston height is good.  Ready for reassembly.

Noob breaks off a couple exhaust studs.  Extracts one.  Breaks the fucking extractor off down in the hole.  I thought it was a tap.  I attempted to shatter it.  That failed miserably.  It even survived mostly intact. I then learned that it was an extractor.  I tried mini carbide bits.  Nope.  Drilling?  L fucking oh L.  It  is headed to the machine shop to get unfucked.

I have no news on the CLA 45.  It was pushed out.  

I was the target of ridicule due to my newfound professionalism.  I explained that I no longer need to tell people to use their bodies to attempt asexual reproduction or use coarse language.  I also actually prefer it when they mock me and such.  Because it doesn't bother me.  I have a different perspective.   And different tools that are far more useful than words.  

Not yet, the .38 didn't help at all.  

I replied to your email with a data log of the first engine.

Yeah that damn thing had nothing wrong with it, yet.

I dropped the pan and pressured the cooling system since we were losing coolant at a phenomenal rate, but the only thing I found was a webasto heater with a drip every couple seconds. Held 15 all night long.  So we agreed to put the pan on, resample the engine oil after testing, and let it slide if the sample comes back alright.

Alright, this I can do a lot with. May take a day or two to figure something out.

I've changed a metric shit ton of egr coolers on tier4 c13s. They never seem to leak when you pressure them up unless everything is running and hot. The last few used a gallon or so/day for a few days and then completely let go. You can look at the regen history and see if they start getting more frequent from the coolant residue plugging the dpf.

Today I learned that step three of replacing a starter on a biturbo V8 is to remove the engine. I felt really bad because the guy spent all day pulling an engine harness and got stuck at that point.  

The noob spent all day replacing a blown hydraulic hose on an SL500.  

The machine shop has the cylinder head he broke the extractor off inside.

Cylinder head is back from being unfucked.  Motor is being reassembled.

CLA 45 is getting turbo only.  Then I suppose they can recheck when it runs again.

I threw a low temp radiator in a GLC.  Easiest I've ever done on a Benz.  

Saw a guy who really doesn't like me going balls deep in a heavily wrecked and poorly repaired s class.  He told me about its problem.  I immediately steered him to the solution, an item he had completely overlooked.  Alarm sirens go bad and blow fuses to the ignition switch.  He assumed wreck damage to the harness.  He didn't take the time to see what the wiring branched off to.  I think maybe he is warming up to me.

now wait just a dang second, WHAT?

#itsamercedes

Cute little thing isn't it.

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Im confused.  The labor rate says 3 hrs.

Backup battery.  Used to ensure the electric shifter thingy makes it in to park should all else fail.

Cars with regular shifters don't have them.  I believe that they arrived with the 2006 m class.

Three?  In what chassis/engine combo?  They are typically pretty low... .9 or some such.  But when I looked up a 2013 Gl450....ouch!

It was a pretty light day... everyone is freaking out about an expected six inches of snow.  

Heads got installed on the ML 63.

I helped roll a timing chain in to a ML diesel.

It sucks I have six more online training classes to do now.

I don't know what the fuck clicked today to make it happen, but it seems like it all came back, I'm back...

Don't know, or honestly really care what happened, but after lunch today, my confidence in my work came back, and even the others in the shop noticed it.  Funny how that shit works.

You should post up some of the stupid shit you've seen in some of the shops you went to.

Super cool day. Annual service and inspection on a tractor.

Then the real fun started, got a 3612c from PA that had a real bad trans cooler failure, and whoever they had replace the coolers never flushed the cooling system.

When I drained the coolant I only got about 50 gallons out instead of the 125ish I should have got.

Tool the tank off only to find the upper cooler and tank filled with grey/black goo

Went and bought 6 lbs of cascade and had an entire afternoon of fun at the wash bay. It's better now but still drains grey and black so I'll flush the system a couple more times then write it up for another flush when it comes home next time.

Other than that, it got cold again and we had a couple trucks gel their fuel going down the road but they both had older fuel from early winter in them.

2015 SL65 for the 3 hrs labor for starter.

2013 GL, holy crap.  12.9 hrs for a starter.  Is step one lube your own asshole?

It's a three step process.

Step 1: dissemble car
Step 2: replace starter.
Step 3: reassemble car.

Remove engine (~4hrs) remove exhaust pipe from turbo and replace starter.  Reinstall engine, correct fluid levels.  Perform alignment.  

V12 is longer by two cylinders and doesn't use same setup for turbos.  You probably have to fight it at three hours but it doesn't involve dropping the motor and reinstalling it which is likely ~25 hours.  

The GL is an  always has been incredibly expensive to maintain.  The base V6 model M class is far less expensive and more reliable.  

We have ice on all secondary roads and school was cancelled.  I drove the Benz to work and it performs admirably in the slick stuff.  Beats the Honda without ABS and the vette which couldn't get out of the garage.  It's pretty much our only vehicle until the weather clears.  

I caught up all my online training and did a single service.