Sudden Power Loss
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 5
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Sudden Power Loss
The college I work for purchased two 2006 Sprinters for our program. In the course of four months, and 30,000 miles, one Sprinter has experienced the “Sudden Power Loss” problem once, and the other one has done it no less than FIVE times.
In all cases, the problem was traced to the “Turbo Resonator”, which is nothing more than a small muffler that attaches to the output side of the turbocharger, prior to the intercooler.
This stupid little part, which lives in a high temperature environment, and has to contain the boost pressure produced by the turbo, is made of PLASTIC!!! It has a two piece body which is bonded together with an adhesive.
It seems that the current batch of “Turbo Resonators” were not bonded together well enough to survive in the environment they are installed in. When the seal at the seam fails, boost pressure is lost, and the computer thinks that a catastrophic turbo failure has occurred; …….and it drops you into a “Limp Home Mode”, as it’s program demands.
The insidious part of the failure is that since it is a seam that is leaking, it can be leaking badly enough to make the computer think that there has been a catastrophic turbo failure, and still not be visually obvious when the engine is off.
Chrysler-Daimler knows about this problem, but is taking NO action: …….They are not even sending out service bulletins to their dealers on this issue. They are, instead, trying to convince each user that they have experienced a “One-in-a-Million” failure.
This problem, and more specifically the way they are handling it, is going to cost them! ……..It has already resulted in my college deciding to purchase 25 Ford vans instead of Sprinters. (As was originally planned.)
In all cases, the problem was traced to the “Turbo Resonator”, which is nothing more than a small muffler that attaches to the output side of the turbocharger, prior to the intercooler.
This stupid little part, which lives in a high temperature environment, and has to contain the boost pressure produced by the turbo, is made of PLASTIC!!! It has a two piece body which is bonded together with an adhesive.
It seems that the current batch of “Turbo Resonators” were not bonded together well enough to survive in the environment they are installed in. When the seal at the seam fails, boost pressure is lost, and the computer thinks that a catastrophic turbo failure has occurred; …….and it drops you into a “Limp Home Mode”, as it’s program demands.
The insidious part of the failure is that since it is a seam that is leaking, it can be leaking badly enough to make the computer think that there has been a catastrophic turbo failure, and still not be visually obvious when the engine is off.
Chrysler-Daimler knows about this problem, but is taking NO action: …….They are not even sending out service bulletins to their dealers on this issue. They are, instead, trying to convince each user that they have experienced a “One-in-a-Million” failure.
This problem, and more specifically the way they are handling it, is going to cost them! ……..It has already resulted in my college deciding to purchase 25 Ford vans instead of Sprinters. (As was originally planned.)
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
RE: Sudden Power Loss
After i complained to DC about this problem (had it on all my vehicles) they have issused a release and instructed dealers to replace them at no charge to the customers. If i can find the bullentin I will post it for you. This has been a very annoying problem and to solve it I added to my parts inventory those stupid things so we were only down the amount of time it toke to drive to the dealershiup and have it installed.
