Sprinter - Help please!

[seekerman]

Hey folks. I guess I should be thankful it didn't happen on a dark and lonely road. I have a 2004 Freightliner Sprinter 2500. Pulled in to deliver the load in Johnson City about 1:00 am. Nobody there so I went out to leave. When I started the vehicle and pulled out the power steering was gone and the battery light was on. Looked under the hood, belt wasn't turning and a black fluid was leaking on the ground. As best as I could tell it was leaking from the lowest pulley on the engine and the pulley appeared offset. I don't know what I've got. My first thought was obviously the power steering pump. I don't know what happens when tensioners or pulleys go out. I looked in the power steering reservoir but it appeared to be full and the fluid looked brown not black. The leaking fluid looked like black engine oil. I'd like to have an idea of what happened before a mechanic gets hold of me. If this has happened to anyone or if anyone knows what has happened I would really appreciate your input. Thanks..........John

 

[Turtle]

The power steering pulley is the upper right, driver's side (as looking at it while standing in front of the engine). Power steering and transmission fluid are both red in color (could look brown in the dark). It's a rather large pulley as compared to the tensioner pulley (just below and to the left of the power steering pulley) or the idler pulleys (immediately to the left of the power steering pulley, and a similar one at the upper left).

Directly below the power steering pulley is the AC clutch pulley. That's the far lower right.

The far lower left is the alternator pulley.

The great big one in the middle that the fan is attached to is the crankshaft pulley.

The smaller one in the middle-left, just above the big crankshaft pulley is the water pump pulley.

The only one that would result in losing black engine oil would be the large crankshaft pulley at the bottom middle. Of the 7 pulleys to lose, that's probably the worst one. Could be the harmonic balancer needs to be replaced, and probably a belt tensioner. Could be anywhere from $700-$1100 depending on what's wrong.

 

[billg27]

Sounds like the main crankshaft pulley came loose and walked off the crank. Now it's hanging there losing belt tension and allowing the front seal to leak engine oil. Might be able to put in a new bolt and retighten the pulley and put the belt back on.

Don't you just love Sprinters!

 

[seekerman]

Turtle, I've got a question...Do you have a photographic memory? Do you retain everything you have ever read or seen? Amazing how you are able to come up with the information you always seem to have. The vehicle is on the rack now. Interestingly enough, the delivery was to a dodge dealership. They called a wrecker and the guy pulled it into the dealership and didn't charge me a thing. As you guys describe the problem, it appears to be the main crankshaft pulley. Let's just hope the the fix is Bill's fix. Thank you both so much for letting me know what's going on guys. Always makes it much easier to deal with repair shops if we know what's going on. I do love sprinters and therein lies the problem....I don't want to give em up despite the trials and travails of owning one.

 

[Turtle]

A photographic memory? No, I can barely remember my own phone number. I tend to remember what I think is important, and discard the rest, same as most people do, I guess. I'm pretty good at knowing how to quickly look something up to refresh my memory on the details, and to double-check my memory, though.

In this case, however, I have an intimate working knowledge of everything that stupid idiotic retarded serpentine belt touches, having replaced the belt tensioner six times, the alternator and water pump twice, and the power steering and AC compressor once, and both idler pulleys twice. I also have a printout handy of the belt routing, complete with every pulley labeled.

For anyone interested, here's a PDF I put together of the belt routing (04-06 Sprinters). It's a good idea to have it handy. I haven't done it yet, but I recommend laminating it and affixing it to the windshield washer reservoir.
Serpentine Belt Routing2.pdf

 

[briggie1]

Hey folks. I guess I should be thankful it didn't happen on a dark and lonely road. I have a 2004 Freightliner Sprinter 2500. Pulled in to deliver the load in Johnson City about 1:00 am. Nobody there so I went out to leave. When I started the vehicle and pulled out the power steering was gone and the battery light was on. Looked under the hood, belt wasn't turning and a black fluid was leaking on the ground. As best as I could tell it was leaking from the lowest pulley on the engine and the pulley appeared offset. I don't know what I've got. My first thought was obviously the power steering pump. I don't know what happens when tensioners or pulleys go out. I looked in the power steering reservoir but it appeared to be full and the fluid looked brown not black. The leaking fluid looked like black engine oil. I'd like to have an idea of what happened before a mechanic gets hold of me. If this has happened to anyone or if anyone knows what has happened I would really appreciate your input. Thanks..........John

if i remember correctly, those sprinters up to 2006 were known for the bottom damper pully falling off,, if that happened you will have to put a new oil seal on and just tighten the damper back up

 

[skyraider]

An 8 yr old Sprinter is getting some age on it, how long will carriers let you drive an aging unit ?

 

[mjmsprt40]

if i remember correctly, those sprinters up to 2006 were known for the bottom damper pully falling off,, if that happened you will have to put a new oil seal on and just tighten the damper back up

That's odd. I had a 2005, when I bought it it had 183,000 miles on it and when I traded it it had almost 400,000. I never had the damper fall off or give any sign that it would. Tension pulleys and idler pulleys, well, they were another matter. Mercedes could have done much better quality control in that department, I know because lesser machines aren't cursed with the problems that Sprinters seemed to have.

So, now I have a question: Is it common for Sprinters before 2007 to have the damper pulley come loose? If so, how did Mercedes get away with such shockingly bad quality control? If Ford had had that problem, they would have been driven out of business if they didn't fix that quickly.

 

[guido4475]

An 8 yr old Sprinter is getting some age on it, how long will carriers let you drive an aging unit ?

I think it really depends on the carrier, and how well the driver has taken care of it. Mechanical preventative maintenance will go a long way.There are some that don't even wash it, not keeping up on the outside appearance, And than there are those, (Nick and Jenny come to mind) that own an older Sprinter, that looks better than alot of new one's I see.Personally, in my opinion, with the time we sometimes have in between loads, I think there is no excuse for a crappy looking vehicle in this business. Our vehicles are a reflection of the company we are leased to.

 

[dolphin]

I think it really depends on the carrier, and how well the driver has taken care of it. Mechanical preventative maintenance will go a long way.There are some that don't even wash it, not keeping up on the outside appearance, And than there are those, (Nick and Jenny come to mind) that own an older Sprinter, that looks better than alot of new one's I see.Personally, in my opinion, with the time we sometimes have in between loads, I think there is no excuse for a crappy looking vehicle in this business. Our vehicles are a reflection of the company we are leased to.

I would agree. I have been looking for a used Sprinter/E350 diesel and its seems the vans that are
better on the outside are also better service by their owners. I would think if someone would go to the trouble to keep rust away and keep the body clean they would also maintain the engine, tranny etc.