I ordered a set of Michelin premier A/S for my benz, and a set of conti extreme contact sport for my corvette.

I had entertained the idea of aftermarket wheels, then maybe trading for a c6z, but there are none for sale around here so I'll just keep on letting mine sit in the garage instead of a different one.

Working on a empty container handler that went ass over tea kettle last year. This machine has a lot of issues wrong with it. Will be installing a new mast among other things. Today was just changing the tilt cylinders and doing a full PM on the fluids.
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Boomeranged as soon as the harness was installed.  Well, there is only one thing left.... ordered an engine control unit.  I really love how bad this stuff can make you look.  You can throw your very best in to everything, and watch it humiliate you time and again.

Spent a few hours in sprinter land because a gas powered one up and died.  Cranks but doesn't start.  Found 10 ohms of resistance in the body ground due to a corroded bolt.  Fixed that, no spark.  Power, ground present on the coils but no trigger signal is apparent on the scope.  Tried doing some breakout box testing, but the breakout box wasn't working.  We first tested continuity to ground but weren't getting it through the breakout box, but the engine harness has it.... so we gave up and tested what we could, where we could.  Verified power and ground and ended up sending a quote for a control unit.  We find it odd that all six coils aren't getting a signal... yet here we are.

A twenty year old shit show of a CLK convertible comes in.  Soft top hydraulic pump doesn't work.  I think maybe they will junk this 180K mile gem, because its a $4600 part.

I had to wear several hats today because people were out... but it wasn't too busy so I got *some* stuff done.

The problem cars can really pile up at times.  It sucks when I simply don't have enough time to get stuff looked at, let alone completely diagnosed.  My scope has been getting used a lot more lately, which is not a good sign.

yep

battery light car shipped today without a repair.  Some thirty hours in it for nothing.

A/c car shipped, anticipating a boomerang.

It was the slowest day in a very long time.  I went digging through service literature only to find that much of our vehicle and system specific information was gutted and replaced by generic documents that may not even apply.   This sucks.

Also noticed that without certain features available in our diagnostic computer, certain tasks are not possible.  Example being a sprinter van with a gasoline engine uses what is mostly the same wiring and engine control unit.  The diagnostic computer does not have the information book icon because it's a sprinter van.  On a passenger car, the information is available.... You cannot perform break out box testing without the icon,   because it's the only location for break out box socket identification.   It is not found in any other place.  So you would have to hook up to a car with the same engine, print out the information, and then hope that it matches the van.

break out boxs? those are still a thing for you guys? we only have those for Pre-2011 Kia's and when Honda trained me originally they had none.

Sprinter van with a no start was fixed by a new engine control unit, but is now setting a hard fault for right intake cam position.  Scope and socket box says its a bad reman control unit, because the sensor readings are spot on.

LOL.  Vehicle actually needs a control unit, control unit bad out of box.  LOL

Bad ecms out of the box aren't that rare in the equipment world. Especially remans.

Truth. I just had two Danfoss plus one controllers bad out of the box.

Fuck those pieces of shit and that joke of a program!

I haven’t worked with many other options so it’s all I know. I kind of like them but that’s just me.

Fml we threw another reman ecu at it and it sets the same fault.  We are finding conflicting information about what sets the fault but apparently six degrees of variation is too much.  We can see that the timing is slightly retarded but it is only visible with an oscilloscope.  The base timing is correct.  Although we don't fully understand why it is only setting one fault, and choosing that particular sensor instead of another,  the end result is that every other possibility has been eliminated and it will need a new engine or extensive repairs to the old one.

I followed some guided test steps on a steering wheel vibration motor.  The motor works if you jump power to it.  So I replaced the steering wheel electrics as the instructions stated.  Same fault.  Same problem.  The only thing left is the steering wheel assembly.  For a 2017 glc43 it costs $3400 what the absolute fuck.

I feel like I cannot fix anything lately.

I assisted with a diagnosis by request on a ml350.  It's had issues for years with mixture adaptation faults....  They take so long to set that nobody has ever found the issue.  I saw the faults were both on the right bank and immediately began a smoke test.  We found a leak, pulled the upper manifold and investigated.  One runner on the lower manifold appears to be leaking.

Some days you just cannot win no matter what you do

Went to battle with an older e320 with a loud popping noise from the speakers when using auxiliary input on radio.  I spent a lot of time with this one.  Fabricated a new input harness, noise goes away if harness is unplugged, and the new harness did nothing.  It's audible in fm radio if it's quiet enough on a station.   Regular beat.  Only with engine running.  I ordered and installed an audio gateway, houses the tuner and amp.....  No change.  Scope alternator, it's clean.  Engine off,  no noise.  Start engine, in three seconds it begins popping.  Tempo increases with engine revs.  I bypass all unnecessary audio components.  No change.  I am struggling.  I feel like I haven't fixed shit in three weeks.

I remember something about a noise suppression capacitor in the engine harness, but I've never needed to mess with one.   Search diagrams, there are two.  Each has one bank of coils.  I find them, inspect them, but what are you going to do?  They are made into the harness and I've no way to test them.

I unplugged the entire left bank coils and started the engine.  No noises.  I narrowed it down and replaced coil five.  I've never seen or heard of anything like this.

Later I attacked the new, unsold 2020 gle.  This had a crankcase vent valve assembly, a wiring harness and engine control unit.  Same faults.  I spent a minute searching for a ground cable.... I don't see anything under the hood.  I lifted it up, and found it.  Loose and burnt on the body side.   I cleaned and repaired it.  So far so good.  I cannot explain why it only ever sets one fault.....  It has zero other symptoms.  Just a check engine light.

I'm feeling really good now.

that kind of stuff can still happen? i thought those issues died in the 1990s?

on my front we have diodes in so many things to cut out noise such as that, nothing built into harnesses, totally component side.

OBD1/0 Hondas used a break out box. You really didn’t want to diagnose a SRS light on 1st gen systems. Check every SRS circuit to find the fault, not fault codes.

Good old fashioned RFI. Probably a small crack or missing insulation somewhere inside the coil, not enough to harm function yet but turned it into a miniature spark gap transmitter.

our for our 2011/2006 and 2005/1996 break out boxes were mostly body related, we dont have anything for pre 96 save for some old engine and transmission tools that would sell for a fair penny to people that still tinker with 4g63s

but its highly doubtful any 93-94 sephia's even exist in the states so i think we will be fine.

o i believe it, its just, well i have never seen such a issue on a kia, PLENTY of other weird electrical issues, Pin fit being one of my most hated.

I'm coming up on twenty years with mb and I've never heard of such a thing.  This car was an 04, so it's a dinosaur.  We are several generations removed now.

Pin fit is a very common problem now.

We have entered a new generation of wiring harnesses now so that the engine harness is in six sections.  You can just replace the one that you.need instead of everything.  That said the engines are massively complex now.  It's absolutely crazy how much stuff they put on a car now.

Modern MB power trains are absurd from my point of view, that 4L turbo or some of the others seems nearly impossible to work on with out droping the whole thing out first, everything is in the damn millimeters of clearance

im glad we are going a different route, MB might build the most thermal efficient engines out there but good god the lengths they go to get it is not worth it.

Just remember the valve cover is the cam caps on a M274

while a pain in some ways i wish they were all like that, maximum rigidity with little weight, gasket replacement is annoying though, better have a print out of the bolt pattern and torque specs handy.

see sometimes the Euros will do a good idea like that but then they will do something right next that is stupid, and take a simple idea like a integrated one piece valve cover and make it a pain in the ass for no reason, "it begins with the triple squares" my Honda teacher use to joke

Its been that way for years and on a lot of other engines.  If you don't apply the sealant correctly, it gets in to the cam bearing area and destroys them from oil starvation.  Good times!

BTW, the only fix is an entirely new cylinder head.  Because lets take something simple and make it complex.

Cam lobes are pressed on.  They can slip.  Cam reluctors do the same.  Cam gears have done it as well.  This is why sometimes stuff is so freaking hard to figure out.  It might LOOK like everything is in time, but unless you had another engine apart to compare it to, you would never know.

They don't use a urethane gasket?

Well that sucks, I would have designed it to have enough clearance just to slightly squeez a urethane gasket, I would also have four small little camcaps underneath the main camcover/support that would just simply hold the camshafts in place so they don't come loose at the back end and tilt upwards because of the timing chain tension, I'd also have two metal plugs that you can remove to see the timing marks so you would not have to take everything apart.

But Engineers simply do not think of things like this anymore it seems

Also holyshit the cam lobes are pressed on?????!!!!!
How the fuck is that even possible? Most of ours are simply Hollow pieces that are milled, otherwise they are solid and milled

Also speaking of cams, Nu 2L I am starting to rebuild

The only cross pollinated MB engines I’m familiar with is a M274 or M270, and I’m fine keeping it that way.

Already replaced by the m260 and m264.  Basically the same thing but different.  Electric water pump and shit like that.  The 48v versions didn't make it here.

And yes the cams have little hold downs so that removing the valve cover doesn't pop them, they don't contact the came if everything is assembled properly.  You can check base timing without teardown but anything beyond requires putting some work in.

Today I got word that I'll be joining the diagnostic tech program.  It's a pretty big deal.  I'm excited to have the opportunity.

diag tech program? what is that for us none MB people?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x730dqj

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x73g732

Reminds me of the worldwide competition that KIA has

Installed the $3200 steering wheel.  It didn't work.  Clearly a case of conditioning and not enough information.....  There are no specs to test the vibration motor.  Trying to actuate the motor makes the software glitch.  This is kinda normal and common.  So I don't think anything of it.  Turns out that there is voltage but not current.  Plug  a lightbulb in to the circuit and voltage falls to zero.   When the vibration motor is actuated the voltage falls and the module cuts off.  It's not a software glitch.   Ordered a steering column module.  We will assume the excessive current draw of the old vibration motor killed it.

The kicker is that the "steering wheel electrics" work, except for the vibration motor.  It's the one thing that doesn't, and sets a hard fault immediately.  The electrics module is on a LIN to the steering column module.  It doesn't fail the same way as a module on CAN going down.  I checked voltage with the module operating, and it doesn't present enough of a load to make the voltage drop.  This is where the crappy experiences we have had with diagnostic software derailed this train.  Everything works until the vibration motor is turned on, but the reset is so fast it just looks like glitchy software.  When I loaded the power supply to the steering wheel electrics i found the issue, but by then I had ruled out everything else.  There is a technical bulletin that describes the issue and how to repair it....  This also  narrowed my thinking such that I felt it had to be something that the bulletin said, instead of what was actually wrong.

Another car had come back after new valve cover gaskets were installed.  It has an idle speed fault, and suggested looking for unmetered air.  It's a speed density system on a supercharged engine.  No vacuum leaks are found, and several of us were very thorough. Someone did a throttle actuator to no avail.  I see that the throttle is completely shut, yet idle speed is a tad high.  We checked  for unmetered air in unusual places like the brake booster and purge valve.

Long story short, the tech that did the valve covers drilled out the fixed orfices in the breather covers.  It was pulling all this air through the valve cover and breathers.  We are epoxying the holes completely shut and will match a drill bit to the holes on  another engine and drill new ones.  The holes should be very small.  I used the tip of a pick to clean them.  He used a bit about eight times larger, and on both sides.  We pinched off the breather hoses and she falls right in to spec.  It pays to know what was done to the car, as this would have been much more difficult not knowing that the problem didn't exist until the valve covers were done.

Steering column module fixed the GLC43.  Shipped.

Carmax GLC is returning with the effed up A/C problem.  Will be going directly to tech support this time.

Weird parking assist issue with a 2020 GLE shipped with some software thrown at it and a lengthy test drive without issue.

Expoxying the breathers and redrilling the holes fixed the S55 AMG with the idle issue due to unmetered air.

Looked at a used matrix with a transmission torque converter lock up fault.  Identifix says most likely needs a tranny.

Hot button issue today was a CLS450 that has had ten grand in work done before it was ever sold... and it finally sold.  And it boomeranged right back.  In addition to the many other issues this car has had, its had a fuel starvation issue since the beginning.  Its had two fuel tanks installed under warranty.  There is a known issue of incorrect fuel tanks being installed and also being in parts inventory.  Anyhow, its a saddle tank.  I learned that it drains the right side properly, but the left stays full.  The siphon jet doesn't work on the saddle tank for the left side.  Its already had two tanks though...  We study the available information, which is extremely non specific and not really useful at all.  We remove the fuel pump, and find there is a fitting without a hose on it.  We assume the hose is missing inside the tank, borescope it, and there is no hose.  We determine the siphon jet cannot possibly work without a feed hose and decide the tank is faulty.

We get another CLS450 in and pull the fuel pump, it has no fitting.  We examine pumps side by side and reach a totally different conclusion.

The siphon jet is integrated in to the fuel pump assembly.  Unlike all our older cars that puts the jet in the left side of the tank, this one only has one hose and it "pulls" the fuel in.  The car has the wrong fuel pump.  Parts affirms this.  The fitting was spraying fuel inside the tank, and that fuel should have been getting used to run the siphon jet.  The wrong pump was being transferred in to the new tanks, and was the problem all along.  Because no literature explains this change with the siphon pump, nobody knows about it.

We are still swamped at work with unlimited OT available.

I have been working on just 1 thing all year, actually started it at the end of 2019. Getting close to being done and should have it running next week and be finished with it the following week.

988H powertrain rebuild and most everything else rebuilt or replaced. I have been working on it alone with the exception of the transmission and engine getting rebuilt.

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I used to like getting rebuilds when I was in the shop. No quotes, no waiting on approval, just hundreds of hours of work that needed to be done. Now I feel like I have ADHD and I get stir crazy even going to the same location for a week straight.

Your intake clamps are pointed the wrong way. Once the engine compartment is in place and you have to reach in, then you get stabbed by the clamp.

I like the shop work and decided years ago not to go on the road. I like the idea of consistent hours with a 7- 3:30 day.

As for not quoting, I quote every job for additional repairs. Hitch, boom bearings etc. Our PSSR is good and gets the approval pretty quick.

I double up on the intake clamps as i have had boost leaks in the past. There is just enough room.

What really is annoying is zip ties cut off and left with sharp tails. I cut all mine off with flush cutting dykes.

Zip ties are the reason I can justify spending $50 buck on snap on flush cuts.

I remember working on the railroad and a fellow technician with 30 yeas in the coming scratched the piss out of his forearm on a zip tie. He made everyone stop what they were doing and everyone on the crew did a zip tie sweep for 4 hours.  Any zip tie with a sharp edge was replaced. Not just cut flush. It was the principle of the matter.

Skip the flush cut pliers and get the proper tool for tensioning and cutting the ties.

I have one of the cheapo versions. It works ok. A buddy of mine has the high end on and it's no joke on the tension. Better be good for what that one cost.

I just can’t do it. It looks nice and all but there’s something visceral about cutting zip ties.

Donor fuel pump fixed the cls.  It emptied the left side of the fuel tank in seconds.

You can see the sharp ends sticking up in the video you posted

The guns are ok, but a good set of flush cutters and the patience to get it right is better

stupid in car internet doesn't connect, why the fuck is this even a thing?  Seriously, why?  When the fuck do you need interwebs on your radio screen?  At what point is it not easier to get out your fucking phone and use it?  Fuck this stupid bullshit.  It doesn't work, so we ordered BOTH pieces of the system, replaced them BOTH, and it STILL doesn't fucking work, because its a backend system problem, which we kinda figured it would be, and we CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

Next up, a comeback for a front end noise.  They couldn't reproduce it last visit, and I can't reproduce it this visit either.  So why didn't the advisor have the customer ride with anyone?  This is DAY ONE SHIT PEOPLE.

It was a little slow today.  I'm a little frustrated.  The tear your hair out problems are getting annoying.

Yesterday a brandy new GT 4 door (six cylinder, because six figures only gets you six cylinders) comes in with a check engine light.  Fuel tank diagnostic module issue with the switching valve.  Guided testing is WRONG.  You cannot follow the instructions, because the engine control unit has six connectors, not two as indicated.  The pin numbers are completely wrong, and furthermore unplugging the connector to do testing would disrupt the voltage supply to the part being tested.  You literally can't test the thing.  We don't have break out boxes for this engine yet.  They are not available to order either.  So I shotgun a fuel tank diagnostic module on it.  There is literally no way to verify the repair.  You cannot perform an actuation, you cannot follow a guided test, because the software is broken and doesn't contain the necessary features to perform these tasks.  Furthermore the software to report the broken software DOESN'T WORK EITHER.  I mean seriously fuck this shit.  Best I can do is drive the motherfucker and recheck for fault codes.  None.  Ship it.  Hope it doesn't bounce back.  Enjoy your new car that's not ready for prime time because there is little support even available to the service guys.

We've been fighting with some insurance company for two months about an aftermarket windshield they installed that will not calibrate properly.  It could be causing the issue the client has with collision avoidance systems.  Finally their glass company came to install a "factory" glass because they will A) not purchase the glass from us, and B) won't let us install the glass either.  The installers van of a very large nationally recognized company, reeks of marijuana.  Also, so does he.  His breath, his clothes, everything.

to the first, its all about that tech now.

to the 2nd, how come some of your service manual is so ... wonky? you have made mention of that multiple times, i have never heard of such a thing in Asian and american world, is it a German brand issue or just MB?

and to the third i know what you are dealing with, aftermarket glass company put in the wrong windshield in a cadenza and the HUD would not work at all because it lacked the special reflective film

@saturnstyl

the girlfriend via text - "my cars making a noise!"

Of course, she can't describe it. Can't wait for her to get home and try to figure out what it is

spoiler alert: its a 2010 crv with minimal maintenance and 265k miles on it. It's ragged out and needs to die.