Continuous DEF Problems with Sprinters
- Thread starter RatDog
- Start date
Bite your tongue.
Only at Pilot Flying J stations. I haven't gotten fuel from them consistently in like 6 months. Their prices are out of wack right now. If the price difference doesn't cover the cost of a shower, I'm fueling up somewhere else.
You're not picking fights with yer average Internet blowhards here, you're picking fights with real actual experts on this topic, people who deal with it every day, not just with their trucks, but with hundreds of them.
It reminds of the Internet-infamous Stanley, who on Facebook went to great pains to explain in mind-numbing detail how fellow Facebook poster Deborah Landis was wrong, and quite the ignorant idiot, about the design of, and in particular the inspiration for, the costumes Indiana Jones wore in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After Stanley had make a complete spectacle of himself, finally writer/director Max Landis chimed in to let Stanley know it's time to save a little face. Max Landis is the son of famed director John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, etc.) and of award winning theatrical and movie costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis (Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson's red leather jacket in Thriller, Three Amigos, Trading Paces, Spies Like Us, and, Harrison Ford's costumes in the Indiana Jones movies) . Yep, same ignorant idiot Deborah above who needs to spend a little more time on Google to get her facts straight.
Says the guy who went breathtakingly off-topic to insult a member, a Moderator, no less, to try and make an Internet clever by positing that the member was deprived of attention as a child, which caused him to be rude as an adult, because apparently calling you out on the stuff you're shoveling is rude.
EO is not yer average Internet forum. But you wouldn't know because you signed up, asked a couple of questions, and then disappeared for a year and a half, only to suddenly reappear and fill this thread with your greatness. Most of the people here that you think are yahoos starved for attention are serious professionals with decades of experience and education in their fields. They're not experts because they say they are, they're experts because other people know they are.
As a rule, and in practice, we do not delete accounts. A few exceptions are duplicate accounts, and a few (but not all) spammers. As per the Code of Conduct, "...any information you post becomes the property of ExpeditersOnline.com and you acknowledge and agree that ExpeditersOnline.com may preserve content...". Having said that, you are still free to go back and manually hand delete each of your posts. The content will still be preserved on EO, but at least your posts will be removed from view (unless an Administrator or Moderator chooses to undelete them, of course, which can happen if the post is important to the flow or context of a thread).
You would need to appeal directly to Lawrence McCord, the owner of OnTime Media, and perform one helluva song and dance to convince him. If you cannot sing or dance, then I'm sure he would at least entertain a substantial offer from you to buy OnTime Media so you could make up your own site rules. Fair warning, by "substantial," I'm talking Trump money, or Oprah money.
I have a 2011 Sprinter 3500 and had some mysterious low DEF alarms as well as the dreaded countdowns starting at around 30k miles. I have had low DEF warning lights come on, and I just put one cup of DEF to top it off and the light turns off. (weird). Another time low DEF light came on and I could only put 1/4 gallon in before topping it off and the low DEF light turned off after driving about 30 miles.
Then the following happens...
12/8/17 38848 miles. Check engine light. P22A1 code I cleared the error code again.
12/10/17 39968 miles: topped of DEF with 1 gallon
1/7/18: Check engine light P22A1 again. (Powertrain, ECM-Engine Control $7EO), I cleared the error code again.
2/24/18 43230 miles: Topped off DEF, took little over 2.5 gallons. (Drove 3262 miles since last top off. 3262 / 2.5 gallons of DEF = 1305 miles per gallon of DEF.)
2/24/18 43327 miles P22A1 again. Power train ECM Engine control error $7EO I cleared the error code again.
Google shows P22A1 to be associated to:
ECM Engine control $7EO:
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) sensor 2. bank 1 - circuit high.
Each time I get this code I just clear it and I'm on my way. Looking at my miles in between the error codes, it seems to become more frequent and I am getting less miles per gallon of DEF than when the Sprinter was newer (1800 miles per DEF Gallon before and 1300 miles per DEF gallon now.) I'm happy I'm not getting the countdowns anymore but I'm worried about long term effects of resetting the P22A1 CEL. Are there any with just 43k miles?
Then the following happens...
12/8/17 38848 miles. Check engine light. P22A1 code I cleared the error code again.
12/10/17 39968 miles: topped of DEF with 1 gallon
1/7/18: Check engine light P22A1 again. (Powertrain, ECM-Engine Control $7EO), I cleared the error code again.
2/24/18 43230 miles: Topped off DEF, took little over 2.5 gallons. (Drove 3262 miles since last top off. 3262 / 2.5 gallons of DEF = 1305 miles per gallon of DEF.)
2/24/18 43327 miles P22A1 again. Power train ECM Engine control error $7EO I cleared the error code again.
Google shows P22A1 to be associated to:
ECM Engine control $7EO:
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) sensor 2. bank 1 - circuit high.
Each time I get this code I just clear it and I'm on my way. Looking at my miles in between the error codes, it seems to become more frequent and I am getting less miles per gallon of DEF than when the Sprinter was newer (1800 miles per DEF Gallon before and 1300 miles per DEF gallon now.) I'm happy I'm not getting the countdowns anymore but I'm worried about long term effects of resetting the P22A1 CEL. Are there any with just 43k miles?
With such low miles on a 2011 does it idle a lot?
Sounds to me like a NOx sensor going bad. They use these sensors to know how much DEF to inject. I would personally get it fixed one way or another before it gets worse and you get the countdown again.
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Idling perhaps by the previous owner. Not by me other than about a one minute warm up.
Have you done any research on sprinter-source?
Take it to a good shop. Do you know of one?
I found this on YouTube. Gonna try it before buying 2 $400 sensors.
I have a 2014, bought it new in 2015. During the warranty period, it stranded me 6 times due to DEF system. After warranty, first repair was $2200. One year and 50,000 miles later, it was just under $4,000.00. Twice, I picked it up at the dealer, heading out on a trip and twice, the DEF system broke again, the same day. I found out that under warranty, they were not replacing the bad sensors, they were resetting the system and kicking me out the door. So, why would anyone buy a Sprinter, because with all of the problems, when it is running right, there is nothing else out there. Knowing what I know about them, I would still buy another one. I drove the Ford and Dodge and they are NOT sprinters. But, I do think it's criminal that MB hasn't fixed these problems. I too thought about a class action suit. But, I didn't want to waste my life in court. Oh, my dealer suggested a solution: Buy a new 2019... they have "fixed" the problem.... One more: Everyone should stop trying to figure out what a person did to cause this problem. No one did anything except buy a Sprinter.
One thing you could’ve done was get a delete done to the emissions system and that would’ve solved all your problems. That’s what I did to my 2012 Sprinter. MB fixed the problem awhile back (over sensitive sensors). I have a 2017 Sprinter now with 150k on it and no problems at all. I have a buddy with a 2016 4 cylinder with 250k on it and no issues with the emissions. I would probably get the gasser when in comes out but I will wait until 2020 to get one to see if there are any problems with them.
I would caution everyone about deleting the DEF system incorrectly or having your local buddy at the garage do it. The last time I was at a MB dealership, there was a sprinter there with a blown engine over doing the bypass or delete wrong. The mechanic explained it, but I am not mechanical so I can't repeat what he said. But, I do believe that you need a really competent mechanic to do the delete properly. As far as the gas version, there is no right answer, we all have our preferences. But, to me, I love that big 6 diesel it flies up mountains at 75 mph, loaded. Gotta love it at the same time you hate the DEF. Thanks everyone for all the great posts here.
These are the main issues we’ve seen time-and-again when attempting to assist customers with the deadly “DEF” problem on their Sprinters. My last three “DEF” problems (all on Sprinters) were resolved with a DPF/DOC cleaning AND an ECM software flash (update). Seems there’s a whole host of problems resolved with just the ECM software update alone.