4th of July under my Funsedes Benz E420

[null]

FYI
This is what happens when you drive up the San Fran hills with 4 cylinder V8

The weekend has been wild, ripping canyons in high revs, as usual.
Well, in the mid week while driving around the city engine suddenly died while car came to a stop. It started again right away but the power drastically changed.
I pulled over to the nearest parking lot to read the error codes from the engine with the blinker. No error codes on pin 4, no check engine light. Engine was idling kinda smoothly but I had suspicions something went terribly wrong…

The garage was 2 miles away, But over the big hill. After a short time of considering my options, I got back into my Panzer and floored it

I made it over the hill and by the time I got back I could smell the burning pipe under my butt. Started debugging the ignition system right away: m119 running smoothly with no power, pipe burning = high chance half cylinders not burning the fuel in engine. Debug was (cr)easy, pulled out spark plug wires - reinstalled - started the engine and started to pull them out one by one. If the engine would run the same - the spark was not working. So I verified 4 of the 8 sparks were not firing, all leading to single distributor. Before disassembling it, To verify ignition coil was still fine I just connected a spare spark plug straight into wire from it, made a contact with base and there was a spark on ignition.

Now the only part at fault was for sure distributor, disassembled it and found my Bremi rotor which I changed last year was burnt out.


This time ordered Bosch rotor and cover(already have new Bosch seal), for now waiting to put it back together

 

[emerydc8]

Thanks for the heads-up. I have a set of Bremi rotors and caps on my parts shelf.

 

[null]

For additional info:
This was 119-158-02-31 Bremi rotor
combined with 22-6018R Bremi cap

Picture of the cap I took off

Now I will be getting:
Bosch W0133-1612071 cap and W0133-1622475 rotor. Will see which works better for me

I wouldn’t be fair to blame Bremi for bad quality, I was really pushing it hard, first chasing GTR, then AWD Subaru WRX in rain, maxing out 2nd gear

 

[Jlaa]

Yikes, this happened to @kegmankipp too. Faulty distributor rotor = unburnt fuel into the cat = cat caught on fire = rebuild entire underside of car.

 

[gsxr]

As discussed in older threads on this forum, Bremi was never OEM for ANY ignition components used on the M119. Never ever. Bosch, Beru, and Doduco were OEM's.

For the rotors, the Bosch should be ok. I'd recommend OE/Genuine (made by Doduco) if possible as there are minor differences vs Bosch, for example OE have clear lacquer coating, and the bolts heads fit a 3mm Allen wrench properly. Bosch has neither although you can replace the bolts if you want (there's a thread with details - search for it).

Here's another Bremi rotor fail, btw... y'all have been warned:

 

[gsxr]

Now I will be getting:
Bosch W0133-1612071 cap and W0133-1622475 rotor. Will see which works better for me

FYI, those Wxxxx-xxxxx part numbers are not Mercedes nor manufacturer numbers. Those are WorldPac (part distributor) numbers which show at PartsGeek and a couple of other vendors. If you are buying from PartsGeek, consider cross-shopping RM European, AutohausAZ, and FCP Euro. The PartsGeek catalog can be pretty awful. FCP offers lifetime warranty which might come in handy for some items like caps/rotors.

I wouldn’t be fair to blame Bremi for bad quality, I was really pushing it hard, first chasing GTR, then AWD Subaru WRX in rain, maxing out 2nd gear

Pushing the engine hard has almost zero effect on the secondary ignition system. I blame Bremi for poor quality.

 

[JC220]

That exhuast got HOT

I had a seized m119 a couple years back. (Car bought sight unseen) The aluminium cylinders all had severe damage.

It was theorised by some that the old engine wire harness could have caused an overfueling event and the extreme heat could lead to catalyst particles being drawn back into the cylinders. (Exhaust pulse scavenging)

Sure enough when I put a borescope down the old cat it was melted inside.



My advice, don't run the engine anymore until you remove the exhuast crossover tube and inspect the cats for internal damage. If they are damaged get them off the car.

 

[emerydc8]

Any known problems with the Bremi caps? If I ordered Bosch or OE/Genuine Doduco rotors would they work with the Bremi caps or should I use the Bremi caps for future troubleshooting only?

 

[gsxr]

Any known problems with the Bremi caps?

Good question - I am not sure about the caps, but in general I'm not a fan of Bremi. There's been enough reported rotor failures that I'd never want to use those.

If I ordered Bosch or OE/Genuine Doduco rotors would they work with the Bremi caps...

Yup, everything is interchangeable. No issues with mix & match. I'd prefer the OE rotors but they aren't cheap, unless you can score some old stock Beru on a dusty NAPA shelf (these will be reboxed OE, as discussed here). Don't use the newer orange-color Berus which are reboxed Facet.

or should I use the Bremi caps for future troubleshooting only?

If you have Bremi on the car already I'd be inclined to leave them alone. If you have new in the box not yet installed... I'd consider Bosch or Beru instead.

 

[emerydc8]

Thanks, Dave. I have factory on the car. I’m just wondering what options I
have regarding rotors. I would never install Bremi rotors after what I’ve seen here. Thanks again.

 

[Jlaa]

IIRC @kegmankipp ’s meltdown failure occurred with Beru German EVL183 (reboxed old OE Doduco) rotors and Beru caps.
I wonder of there some interplay between rotors and caps that we need to watch out for.
I also vaguely remember something from @gsxr (?) that mentioned that MB OE caps, if purchased today are manufactured by Bosch. If this is true, then I wonder if the best setup, aside from using all MB branded components, is to use Bosch caps and Beru EVL183 rotors.

 

[gsxr]

Yes - OE caps are Bosch, and have been for many many years, AFAIK. There was additional discussion on this in another thread.

I think years ago the OE caps were lacquer coated, but today they are not, per another forum member's posting? Meaning years ago there was a difference between OE Bosch caops and aftermarket Bosch caps, but the two may be identical today. Might not be anything gained by paying 2x.

 

[kegmankipp]

IIRC @kegmankipp ’s meltdown failure occurred with Beru German EVL183 (reboxed old OE Doduco) rotors and Beru caps.
I wonder of there some interplay between rotors and caps that we need to watch out for.
I also vaguely remember something from @gsxr (?) that mentioned that MB OE caps, if purchased today are manufactured by Bosch. If this is true, then I wonder if the best setup, aside from using all MB branded components, is to use Bosch caps and Beru EVL183 rotors.

Correct JLAA, I was running German Beru’s for both. I can’t say positively if it was the cap or rotor that failed.

My retired MB mechanic buddy told me to buy rotors from MB only and Bosch caps as that’s what came on the car when new.

We put those in and it’s running smoother than ever.

While I hear the Beru rotors are reboxed Duduco OE there was definitely a difference in weight. I wished I would have weighed them both to see if we were just imagining that.

I’d highly recommend that everyone bang on their cats with their hand and see if their cats are rattling. If they are and a rotor
or cap goes down STOP driving immediately. All the broken up pieces of the cats honeycomb are like kindling.

 

[null]

A month ago I failed my California Star Smog Test with a score of Gross Polluter. There could be only one culprit the burn-out cat.

I have installed a new aftermarket one two years ago, the car didn't have cats when I bought it. Since it was all welded in together I couldn't really look into it easily. So instead I decided to just get a new one with a new oxygen sensor and replace both. After how much fuel it burned, there was no way it would be intact.

Well, I expected something similar to what JC220 posted.

View attachment 158766

But I would have never expected THIS:

It feels like someone stole my cat without stealing my cat.
I did hear a couple of big bangs on the way home when the initial accident happened, thought it was a giant misfire. Would not expect if I have been throwing out burning cat pieces through the flaming exhaust


Oh well, I did pass the smog test with super clean scores. And the car was running perfectly, up until yesterday