buckhornspice
Member
Was running good, shut down , next morn engine wouldn't hit a lick just turns over any suggestions besides a match
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0 4 freightliner w Mercedes no start
- Thread starter buckhornspice
- Start date
d9gdon
Senior Member
It didn't throw any codes?
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,211
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
We have a Mercedes in a Sterling and it was having an intermittent "no start" of "die while running" problem. Sometimes it would go for weeks without a problem, then stop for lunch and crank and no start. Dealer came out and checked all kinds of things and could not find anything. We don't have the computer to hook to it or even a wiring diagram other than the sticker on the cover to relays and fuse panel on left front fender. One day I was there when it failed to run and was looking at the relays and saw one that was labeled something like "Engine". Pulled it out to check prongs for corrosion, looked fine but when I plugged it back in tried starting and it fired right up! As a Sterling is just a Ford with a a badge change I took the number off it and ordered a replacement from NAPA for a couple dollars. Next time it acted up swapped in the NAPA one and I think it's been a couple years with no return of the problem. I took the original one apart expecting to see corrosion or something obvious but a quick look it looked like new.
d9gdon
Senior Member
Yeah, one advantage of a sticker on the fender of the truck gushing 'Mercedes powered'; when you park it you can leave the keys in it cause the SOB isn't worth stealing.
buckhornspice
Member
Check engine light does come on checked fuses and ground at battery and fuses, relays in dash pane I don't believe it's throwing any codes if I checked it right
buckhornspice
Member
Did notice while cranking a number or code would flash on the screen ICU 140 not sure what that means
d9gdon
Senior Member
Did you check all fluid levels as it will shut down the engine for something like low coolant. I would think it would start first though and throw a code. Maybe you parked on an unlevel spot and the sensor is not reading right.
Give it a sniff of starting fluid to see if it'll try to fire. That'll tell you if it's fuel related. Maybe it sucked air into the fuel system(damn plastic fuel lines next to a hot engine) or bled back to the tanks overnight.
Seems like the 138 code is a generic code that it'll throw if your fluids are low.
Give it a sniff of starting fluid to see if it'll try to fire. That'll tell you if it's fuel related. Maybe it sucked air into the fuel system(damn plastic fuel lines next to a hot engine) or bled back to the tanks overnight.
Seems like the 138 code is a generic code that it'll throw if your fluids are low.
Last edited:
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,211
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
We have a Sterling with a MB engine. Last year we had a problem one morning where it would start and run for about a minute then die. When it died it showed 128 on the dash. When dealer said they were full up for about a week for a road mechanic to come out with a computer to check it out he did suggest checking fluid levels. As this truck was made to be a county plow truck it has the butterfly doors on the hood. With main hood down looking at the coolant tank it appeared to be about half full. While looking the truck over I opened the main hood and then could see the coolant sensor was about 1/4 inch above the coolant level. With hot coolant the day before it would have been covered! Add about 1 gallon coolant and truck was back to work!
d9gdon
Senior Member
kshansen,
I learned that too after rebuilding my first one after the thermostat opened for the first time.
buckhornspice,
There's a check valve in the bottom of the cartridge fuel filter housing that can let fuel drain back to the tanks. Then it's tough to get it primed again. I have a trick for that if that's what is going on.
I learned that too after rebuilding my first one after the thermostat opened for the first time.
buckhornspice,
There's a check valve in the bottom of the cartridge fuel filter housing that can let fuel drain back to the tanks. Then it's tough to get it primed again. I have a trick for that if that's what is going on.
buckhornspice
Member
I'm all ears on your trick to get this thing primed, I think we found the culprit, a pin hole in the fuel filter cap, but still having a time to get this thing to run, finally noticed the hole when we had it running off a gas rag, the pump would finally build enough pressure and it would shoot it out the hole, any help is appreciated.
d9gdon
Senior Member
Here is the procedure from the manual:
https://ddcsn-ddc.freightliner.com/cps/rde/xbcr/ddcsn/18SP610.pdf
Instead of the pump up sprayer, I use a new piece of 2" pipe with a ball valve on one end and a hydraulic line on the other(just plumb it down to 1/4") with a fitting to adapt to the ISO nipple on the fuel filter housing. I have a pipe nipple welded into the side of the pipe with a pressure regulator fitted with an ordinary 1/4" male air fitting so I can pressurize the pipe after pouring clean diesel thru the ball valve and closing it. You might want to put a shut off valve on the hydraulic line. I just put about 15 pounds of pressure on it when cranking(after running a couple of fillings of fuel through) and it fired right up.
I had built this to prime the engine oil after I rebuilt the engine and just reused it to prime the fuel system instead of re-plumbing a pump up sprayer.
The priming system was already installed on these trucks, but I had to go to a hydraulic shop to get that ISO fitting. Everything is metric on them of course.
https://ddcsn-ddc.freightliner.com/cps/rde/xbcr/ddcsn/18SP610.pdf
Instead of the pump up sprayer, I use a new piece of 2" pipe with a ball valve on one end and a hydraulic line on the other(just plumb it down to 1/4") with a fitting to adapt to the ISO nipple on the fuel filter housing. I have a pipe nipple welded into the side of the pipe with a pressure regulator fitted with an ordinary 1/4" male air fitting so I can pressurize the pipe after pouring clean diesel thru the ball valve and closing it. You might want to put a shut off valve on the hydraulic line. I just put about 15 pounds of pressure on it when cranking(after running a couple of fillings of fuel through) and it fired right up.
I had built this to prime the engine oil after I rebuilt the engine and just reused it to prime the fuel system instead of re-plumbing a pump up sprayer.
The priming system was already installed on these trucks, but I had to go to a hydraulic shop to get that ISO fitting. Everything is metric on them of course.
CaptainAnalyzer
Well-Known Member
Does it just crank and crank? Give her a whiff of that go spray. On two separate trucks I have witnessed the same problem.
Both were 03-05 model OM460 435hp engines that lost their prime due to a pin hole leak in the fuel supply line coming out of the filter going into the pump. You have to remove the alternator and bracket to get access (Mercedes) to verify if the leak isn't that apparent. One had a pinhole, the other had a leaking copper gasket on the inboard side of the banjo bolt.
Both were 03-05 model OM460 435hp engines that lost their prime due to a pin hole leak in the fuel supply line coming out of the filter going into the pump. You have to remove the alternator and bracket to get access (Mercedes) to verify if the leak isn't that apparent. One had a pinhole, the other had a leaking copper gasket on the inboard side of the banjo bolt.