who says commonrails don't last?

[oilhammer]

Apparently nobody at Mercedes-Benz!



2009 Sprinter.... fleet vehicle, so beat, battered, abused. But still kickin'. Original engine, still clean and dry without any leaks. Recently replaced the original alternator, around 350k it needed an accessory belt tensioner, and we felt a little play in the fan support bearing so we replaced that then, too.

Couple glow plugs and an EGR valve, that about rounds it out. On its second set of brakes. 10k service interval (by the book) with MB 229.51 compliant 5w40 Pentosin HP2 motor oil, Mann filters. It has gone over many times, though, once they let it go 24k miles. PM reminder in the cluster was showing -14000 It has been filled with gasoline at least twice that I know of, but I was able to flush it out, refill with diesel and prime it up with a new filter and it started right up.

It has had a bad DPF for the last 100k miles, but the fleet is too cheap/dumb to address it, so they just drive around with the MIL on and since we don't have OBD testing for GVWR over 8500 pounds they can legally do so.

But it runs and drives darn near perfect. We service quite a few of these, but someone asked about an odo pic in another thread so here it is.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

The OM642 seems to be a pretty bulletproof engine. And it's in a lot of vehicles. Good to see one lasting like this, especially the fuel system.

 

[oilhammer]

Yep, but the issue is, MB left out a lot of the failure prone "fluff" of their cars when they make their trucks. The Sprinters are pretty spartan, utilitarian, which is good. Because nothing really breaks much. The dash is hard plastic, and it holds up. Seats, seat frames, floor coverings, door panels, all very tough.

Which makes me think that the Jeep Grand Cherokee with this engine/trans may indeed be a pretty decent vehicle, as they have a pretty decent interior as far as simplicity and what not. Doesn't feel plush, but doesn't feel fragile, either.

The earlier Sprinter's interior feels a little less robust. Reminds me a lot of my Eurovan. Looks nice, but be gentle with it.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Current Grand Cherokee has a VM engine. The OM642 was in the last gen. Those aren't very common. I think I could stand having a 2WD one, however.

 

[dremd]

Very cool, thanks. Now I wish I had gone for that gen over the relatively emissions free 06 that I went out of my way to find.
I do wish my T1N had the later interior, it is much nicer.
I drove mine 600 miles yesterday, not even a hickup.

 

[oilhammer]

Current Grand Cherokee has a VM engine. The OM642 was in the last gen. Those aren't very common. I think I could stand having a 2WD one, however.

Yeah, I meant the older ones. Although I wouldn't cross off the newer VM powered ones until they've had the chance to prove themselves one way or the other.

 

[Bran Diezel]

Our local fedex home delivery guy has a fleet of those with around 500,000 mi on each one. His crew runs them ragged. Aside from doing the ball joints once every 100,000 I've done pretty much nothing else to them, save a belt tensioner or 2.

 

[storx]

I agree the older jeeps with that engine are bulletproof... I thought about getting one.. but i learned my lesson with trusting transmissions in dodges long ago between owning 4 different dodge diesel pickups..

There is a guy i worked with in Colorado who has one who hauls his ATV's and stuff up into the mountains with it like EVERY weekend without an issue... ONCE he swapped the tranny out with an manual from diesel liberty with 6 speed manual... i think in the 5 years i worked with him he had to have the auto trans rebuilt twice..

 

[yatzee]

the om642s in the sprinters are quite good. The only failures I've seen are usually to do with owner maintanance, or lack there of. Seized turbo actuator caused by broken inner fender well, misplaces orange turbo seal causes turbo/engine damage, things like that.

I very much like the 07/08 Grand Cherokee CRDs with the om642, but chrysler predictably screwed it up - i don't recall the ratio's but the diff ratios are way too high. The damn engine is spinning at nearly 3k at 75 mph, so getting good fuel economy is almost impossible. With a 2wd model, you can swap the rear diff gears, but finding proper gears for the front is quite expensive

 

[whitedog]

I'm not sure what the big deal with the Common Rail thing is. We have two Duramaxes right at 680,000. I think I have mentioned them before. They have one heat cycle perday and it's 99% highway miles, so it's a pretty easy life. One of them did have the HPFP replaced. I don't know about the injectors or anything else before 300,000 miles though. They were the cheapest vehicles they bought and the most reliable.

 

[supton]

I agree the older jeeps with that engine are bulletproof... I thought about getting one.. but i learned my lesson with trusting transmissions in dodges long ago between owning 4 different dodge diesel pickups..

I know nada about Jeeps, but I'm pretty sure some of them came with AW4's, which was a Toyota (Aisin?) A340, which is capable of long life. Maybe not high mpg's, maybe a big power suck; but long lived.

 

[oilhammer]

The MB engined Grand Cherokees get an MB transmission, as do some other gasser GCs and some of the LX body cars. Just depends on the engine. We had a 2013 Charger police car in here with a 5.7L that had the MB box (they've switched to ZFs on those now).

 

[redbarron55]

I certainly hope you are correcct. I have 211,000 miles on my 2009 JSW now and have fixed a lot of the irritating thing that VW should have had right but didn't.
I have installed the 2 Micron kits and taken care of the DPF problem and now I hope to run to high mileage.
The question now is (I guess) how long will the (original) HPFP last.
In another 30,000 miles I will be due for the second timing belt change and at that time I will replace the water pump and idlers etc. on the front of the engine.
I wonder if while the thing is apart what else should I proactively replace?
I wonder where 2 Micron is on the replacement for the HPFP system?
So Far So Good.
I may have to change my opinion on VW if the thing keeps running well. That is after I finish building it for them that is.