Mecedes and ether problems

[grannytrucker]

Hey guys maybe you can give me some advise. I own a 2003 M2 106 w/Mecedes engine. Have always had it serviced at a freightliner dealer. In December we had an oil change done at a freightliner service center. Had them use our filters/Mecedes, and tried to keep an eye on the tech as much as possible. I found that he hadn't put my filters back on the truck as we had asked and went in to advise service manager of that issue. During that time the tech couldn't get the truck to start so he used ether to get it started. Ever since then the truck hasn't run right. We drove from San Antonio to Clovis, NM and and injectoer went out. from Clovis to Sheveport, LA we had the turbo go out causing the charge air cooler to go out. From Sheveport to Greenville, SC we had 2 more injectors go out. After sitting over the holidays we did a load from Greenville to Indianapolis, IN and the engine won't start unless we held our foot to the floor till it picked up the fuel. Stoops freightliner suggested changing the fuel filters, we did, it ran fine till we started back to Durman NC then the check engine lite came on and after being off all nite didn't want to start again. It is currently back at a Freightliner shop getting the rest of the injectors replaced. But first thing they said was wrong with it was the intake heater. I know that repairs are a way of live in this business but just don't seem to be confident with the repairs/service centers we have taken truck to. Do any of you have an opinion regarding the use of ether in this motor and if that could be the cause of our problems? All the work that has been done since San Antonio has been done at a Freightliner dealership. And the motor has 480,000 miles on it. Thanks for any input you might have to help us with our sitituation.

Granny Trucker

 

[LDB]

I've always heard ether isn't a good idea in the new engines. I've had very good service from FL Knoxville. If you are ever near them you might want them to take a look at your engine. Good luck.

 

[davekc]

My quess is that the ether did some damage. Might have blown an injector tip. Look up around your air intake or around the air filter element and there is a REAL strong possibility there is a "DO NOT USE ETHER" sticker.
Hard to tell what damage has been done. My experience, while not recent, is that most FLT dealers are parts changers. Much different than one that can actually diagnose a problem and correct it on the first go around.
I would suggest......maybe highly suggest, going to a (engine only) Detroit/Mercedes engine dealer.

I wish you well under some difficult circumstances.

 

[piper1]

Any mechanic worth his tools should know better than to use ether on an engine with glow plugs or an intake heater. The ether is almost surely why your intake heater is malfunctioning. When you spray ether in the intake it ignites at the heater and not in the engine, the heater is not meant to see live flame!

Your injector/hard start issues are likely related to the non Mercedes fuel filter. On a Merc engine the shape and quality of the filters is very important. I know that when Baldwin first came out with filters for the big Merc they fit but were not within spec resulting in a lot of inj failures. I'm not sure on your engine but on some Merc engines the filter holds a housing drain vavle shut which if it damaged or not held shut would allow fuel to drain back and cause a hard start, again not sure if yours has this. If the guy was dumb enough to use ether he very well could have not put the o-ring in right or cross threaded something so now things aren't sealed right.

The turbo......it may have been damaged by injector tips or perhaps intake heater debris but that would have only damaged the exhaust side of the turbo, if your aftercooler went then that is an intake side of the turbo failure. I can't off the top of my head link the turbo to the rest of your issues with any certainty.