Thread: D4 3.0 SDV6 catastrophic failure

The new crop of dual cab utes have good traction control too of varying degrees. Cheers

Originally Posted by Discodicky

Last Thursday my Br in Law had his 8.5 yr old Mercedes Benz RV with 218,000 klms towed back from Conara (Tas) to Hobart by RACT. A loud bang and lots of smoke.....

Has a rod out the side of the block....literally!!
It (was) the 2.1 litre (Sprinter??) turbo diesel engine.

Coincidentally, around this time last year the RACT towed him from Little Swanport back to Hobart with a failed auto transmission. That cost around $8500.00

Admittedly it is an ex Rental RV but I know the owner of the (Tas) Camper Rental Company and his vehicles are serviced religiously as per schedules... whatever intervals they are with a Merc.

I'd have thought a Merc engine would have lasted longer than that... they all give problems....

....further to this, FYI I can add more as from today.
Turns out it is a 2008 model with the Sprinter engine, 2.1 litres.

A long story short, after exhaustive searching, no engines available anywhere in Aus, either new or SH.

Some "reco" engines advertised on E-bay from overseas but of course are unknown/dubious quality, and apparently they have similar compatibility issues like when swapping a 2.7 Ford Territory engine into a D3.

Br in Law has been quoted to remove engine, fit new complete engine from MB ex Germany (two months freight)... wait for it....

$38-40,000

Makes a (roughly) $20-25k D3/4 engine replacement seem quite reasonable....

He told them to go ahead and get it ordered.

That Sprinter van must be worth a good few $ second hand,or it wouldn't be viable to repair at that cost?

A 2.1L engine seems very small for such a large van.

In 45 yrs of doing millions of k's in loaded service vans i have never had an engine issue.

Originally Posted by scarry

That Sprinter van must be worth a good few $ second hand,or it wouldn't be viable to repair at that cost?

A 2.1L engine seems very small for such a large van.

In 45 yrs of doing millions of k's in loaded service vans i have never had an engine issue.

I’d say viability depends on how happy they are with the set up.

Sometimes it’s not about the resale

Shop around a bit MERCEDES SPRINTER ENGINE DIESEL, 2.1, TURBO, EURO 5, NCV3, 651.955 CODE, W/ OIL | eBay

or enquire from 602.980 and 612.981 Mercedes Sprinter 5cyl Fully reconditioned engines | eBay
That's only from ebay.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Sometimes it’s not about the resale

That sentence explains D2s.

Originally Posted by Tins

That sentence explains D2s.

And quite a few other LR model runs.

Originally Posted by Tombie

I’d say viability depends on how happy they are with the set up.

Sometimes it’s not about the resale

Hit the nail on the head!

It is a very well set up RV with shower/toilet etc. They paid 8K to do the auto tranny about 12 mnths ago.

Been told its worth about 10k as a wrecker. A 'new SH' RV will set them back around $60-90k if they can find a suitable one...

They figure that if they spend the money they'll know what they've got and provide comforting reliability for future mainland trips.

Its a no brainer really, and in my opinion can be likened to D3/4 situation when they do an engine.

Keep the vehicle (assuming you like it) and "amortise" your costs over several years to make the pain feel less hurtfull.

The 'new' SH vehicle you buy may cost you a small fortune in a matter of weeks/months if you are unlucky!