Sprinters Dodge and Freightliner ...Badnews??

[BigDiesel]

I read some old and ugly post about the reliability of these 2 Vans, are people still having problems with these, because if they are they arent for sale, these things are very hard to come by ????

 

[greg334]

BigDiesel
The problem as to do with idling the sprinter for any period of time. The EGR valve gets clogged with the carbon from the un-burnt fuel. This problem was supposed to be solved in the 2005 model but I have heard people with 2005s still having the problem. This truck was designed for the European market, not the US/Canada Market and the engineers at D-C did not think about idling because idling is not allowed in most of Europe from what I was told.

There is also a problem with supplying some of the maintenance parts to the dealers, like Oil Filters and Brake pads. On average most dealers I went to when I looked at the sprinter had these parts in stock BUT I went to a few freightliner dealers and was told if it had a Dodge badge on it or registered as a Dodge they will not touch it even for paid work.

With that said, the Sprinter has been around since 96 or 97 over there and I have a friend who drives the heck out of his (he is on his third or forth one right now) in Germany. He has had some problems with electrical and the options we can’t get here.

If you do get one, I recommend that you get the aux heaters, they will save you a lot of problems. And as for idling, there is a generator housing kit on the market to house a small generator on the rear quarter of the Sprinter. I saw one once and thought it would be a great addition. This way between the generator and the aux heater you will never have to idle.


Oh yea, if I could, I would still get one.

 

[BigDiesel]

Yea i read all that too, It was kinda wierd to read about all those complaints and how everybody was saying not to run one, but finding a used one is like finding a needle in a haystack! Go figure

 

[tadpole]

how about some mileage reports from some of yall total miles on engine & per gallon

 

[geo]

i have a 2003 sprinter and it is a freightliner and i take it to dodge dealer and they service it and do warranty work on it
had the egr value go out at 47,000 they replaced it with new one

have found something out about the sprinter engine it is one of the
first to be 2007 epa etc and one of the things that will help you
is tk7 for diesel
getting any where from 21 to 28 miles per gal or better with tk7

 

[Roadpilot]

I imagine a lot of the problem (other then extensive idling, which that engine is not designed to do) is that we do not have low sulfur diesel here yet. That engine was designed to run on European low sulfur diesel.

Supposedly, Mercedes re-did the top of of the motor to eliminate the EGR problem. The EGR problem was on the early vans (02-03)

 

[hondaking38]

i recently met a guy who has a 2204 late model sprinter with 140,000 miles on it, i usually go over and talk to other sprinter drivers since i own one also...egr are remounted to prevent the problems they have had..however he showed me a trick, that was shown to him...a small diameter dowell rod, cut exactly 9.5 inches, in one end cut a small v in the center,, place this v shape on the lowest part of the dash (there is a lip on the bottom edge) and the other on the gas pedal..at that length you can set your idle from 900-1000 rpms...and you will have no problems with the old style egr...the guy that showed him that has 250,000 miles on his 03 sprinter and never had a egr problem, i use it on my 05 sprinter,with the higher rpm my air conditioner blows a lot cooler air...and when its 90+ outside i would rather burn a gallon of fuel every few hours then die of the heat...hope this works for you..