Sprinter Repair

[Traveling_Pa]

This thread addresses the availability of repair services for sprinter based motor homes. My wife and I have put 250,000 miles on our 2004 Sportsmobile/Dodge/Sprinter 2500 bought new in July of 2004. We have experienced "limp home mode" about 10 times and have been through several turbo resonators until we now have one that is trouble free. The inter cooler hose has also failed several times. Each time we have been able to get to a service facility for repair by utilizing the "limp home" function. Last June we had to be towed, for the first time, for a transmission replacement. When the van was new we found Dodge dealerships to meet our needs. Now we use Freightliner dealers. If local Freightliner dealers don't have people to do the work they can refer us to people who have the skills to do it. The Mercedes dealer in New London, CT, an hour away, has been very good at providing repair and service for this vehicle even though it was built long before Sprinters were sold by Mercedes USA. We also have a local garage for more routine service as well as work on the RV components.

I would like someone else to tell us about finding repair service on the road for the newer 4 and 6 cylinder Sprinter motor homes.

[Shearwater]

Traveling PA - Our 2014 Sprinter (6 cyl) only has about 15,000 miles on it and hasn't needed anything more than routine service at the local Mercedes dealership.

However, I was less than impressed with the service department there - the Dodge dealership that worked on our old van was far more professional and far less expensive than the Mercedes people. Among several other strange things, they didn't want to top up the DEF fluid, which is about as difficult as adding windshield washer fluid. They would do it but they would have charged me $130!

[Shearwater]

CT51 - Your experience with Sprinters does not match mine. Our 2006 had 2 problems over 110,000 miles - the turbo resonator and a failed EGR valve which was replaced under warranty.

Incidentally, the turbo resonator was a Dodge add-on, not a Mercedes part.

[Traveling_Pa]

A week has gone by and there are no responses from the owners of newer 4 and 6 cylinder Sprinter class B motor homes. I can remember difficulty finding someone to work on the engine of my 1996 Coachman/Dodge in 2002. Today I have had no more difficulty finding help with my 2004 Sprinter 2500 with 250,000 miles than I had with the Dodge 3500. Could it be that Sprinter repair is not as great a problem as we thought?

[Shearwater]

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My posts to this topic have not been going through so I tried a test. It posted but the next post gave me a "page reloading - try again later" message.

[CT51]

Thanks for the tip on the Riordan Turbo resonator. We've had the resonator fail, alternator ($1,100 for part alone), leaking fuel fittings, failed idler pulleys (2),transmission leak, two failed A/C/heat blower switches, brake pad warning sensor, EGR valve, even the antenna fell off ($200 for part). This vehicle is parked under cover each night, and has 54,000 miles. I realize the OP wasn't looking for opinions on Sprinters, but I just cringe thinking someone is considering buying another one. Here in the Atlanta area, biggest problem is dealers. They are mostly concerned with getting you a manicure, or a massage, or signing you up for yoga or hitting balls on their driving range, or tasting their gourmet coffee-anything but fixing your vehicle. You can only talk to your service advisor at a scheduled appointment, and don't even think of talking to a technician! OK, thru ranting. I predict that three years from now virtually every class B and B plus that's on a Sprinter chassis now will be on a Transit chassis, and you'll be able to get them worked on at every town in America.

CT51

[Shearwater]

The OP asked about servicing the newest Sprinter engines. For service under warranty you are stuck with Mercedes and (probably) Freightliner dealers. A search of the internet should give you a list of dealers in the US. When Sprinters were sold by Dodge, there was a phone number to call for emergency service on the road and they would arrange to tow the vehicle to the nearest facility. Check with Mercedes to see how they will handle breakdowns.

The only limp-home situation we encountered with our 2006 model was a failure of the turbo resonator. I had purchased the Riordan aluminum aftermarket replacement as insurance and that was the last turbo resonator problem that we had.

[CT51]

My daughter has a mobile grooming van built on a 2006 Sprinter 2500. It is similar to an RV in that it has fresh water tank, gray water tank, 2500 watt invertor, shore batteries (six 6 volt), two water pumps, plumbing, electrical etc. While we have it mostly sorted out, it has been the most unreliable and expensive vehicle to service that I have ever owned. I just purchased a 2016 Pleasure Way Lexor TS. I did not consider any class B built on a Sprinter chassis. It sounds like you are thinking of buying a new class B? If you don't like the RAM Promaster, why not wait until a class B you like is built on a Ford Transit? For every other type of conversion, they are rapidly overtaking Mercedes in sales. I believe it would prove to be considerably more trouble free, and far easier and less expensive to maintain. JMHO.

CT51

[midnightsadie]

I bought my replacement off e bay its a aluminum unit, took me about 20 min to change.

[Traveling_Pa]

rockymtnb wrote:

Traveling Pa wrote:
We have experienced "limp home mode" about 10 times and have been through several turbo resonators until we now have one that is trouble free...

Which turbo resonator did you find to finally be durable (Riordan, Dorman, MB Q5 revision?).

I'm not sure. The first turbo resonator was covered under warranty. The others, I paid the labor. I kept taking it back to the Dodge dealer until the problem was solved. This occurred over maybe 60,000 miles and 3 years.

[rockymtnb]

Traveling Pa wrote:
We have experienced "limp home mode" about 10 times and have been through several turbo resonators until we now have one that is trouble free...

Which turbo resonator did you find to finally be durable (Riordan, Dorman, MB Q5 revision?).

[midnightsadie]

well ours is a 2007 sprinter LTV the 5cyc MB diesel ,I,m still waiting for it to break down, we think there great.we did change the resonator before it broke.