Forum Discussion

wolverine68's avatar
wolverine68
Explorer
Jun 30, 2013

Mercedes Diesel

Does anyone have any experience with the Mercedes diesel in the Sprinter chassis? How are they standing up?
  • bmanning wrote:
    A forum member whose workplace has a fleet of them reported a while back that transmission failure, around 100k miles IIRC, has been a recurrent issue but I don't recall the particulars.

    Of course, those in commercial duty likely see much more stop+go driving and harsh conditions so not sure if the RVer would need to be overly concerned.


    IIRC that was for ones in ambulance service. Where I am working they have 4 of them, 3 less than a year old, the three turned in have 100-150K miles with no major repairs in the 5 yrs that they were in use. So far with the 3 new ones, all have 36-42K in about 13 months, no issues other than fluid and def fills.

    Marty
  • A forum member whose workplace has a fleet of them reported a while back that transmission failure, around 100k miles IIRC, has been a recurrent issue but I don't recall the particulars.

    Of course, those in commercial duty likely see much more stop+go driving and harsh conditions so not sure if the RVer would need to be overly concerned.
  • We have a 2008 Grand Cherokee with the same 3.0 liter engine from Mercedes. (It was also an option in 2007.) The most common problem is the swirl valve for the turbo. It's expensive to replace although some Jeepers just bypass that with a simple resistor.

    The swirl valve went out on mine at about 50K - 60K miles and I also had to replace one glow plug. Otherwise it's just been routine maintenance for 126,000 miles.
  • We have a MB suv with the same dsl engine and have 43k trouble free miles.
  • Generally speaking, so far having driven 6 different ones in the last 18 months or so, no really big issues. Altho when something DOES break, the repair cost is horrendous! BUT, it is plenty spunky for what it is.

    Maty
  • We bought a used 2006 Sprinter in 2010 and have put 26,000 miles on it with zero problems. Excellent mileage and plenty of power climbing.
  • mines a 2007 and I,m still waiting for a problem, runs great gets fantastic mpg and purrs at 65mph all day long. it did have the filter on the turbo changed on there money.