Dual Mass Flywheel- Life Expectancy?
Read in a brochure that my 603 engine has a Dual Mass Flywheel, all working fine ( Touch wood) but read horror stories of DMF failing. Has anyone had a Merc or G one fail?
Your OM603.931 certainly does have a Dual Mass Flywheel part number A602 030 18 05
I have never heard of any G's having issues with these...
Most 90's onwards MB cars run them...
The late 90's onwards diesel MB Vans have them and chew them up for fun.
Nothing usually to do with the Flywheel or the Design in general although there was a re design in the early 00's
Driving style, driving abuse and Pilot error are the main causes
Most of the ones i see (8-12 a day) the Clutch's are toast
150k miles - 250k miles as a rough guide for general service life, a lot more if driven gentle
I have seen them shot at 5k miles and commonly under 50k miles
They do go faulty ever now and then......
I guess it's the torque these new CDI I4 and V6 motors produce
Interestingly the 4 cylinder tends to be worse than the V6? Maybe they are just getting ragged even more by the "drivers"
4 cylinder has a rougher power delivery to smooth so the dual mass flywheel has to do more. A V6 is nearly a straight 6 which is a better balanced engine. A lot also down to tuning.. my 1.9 VAG was tuned to about 210 hp (up from 160hp) but now you have to keep from slamming down accelerator below 2,000 rpm or the dual mass starts to resonate (bad pulses every 1/2 second or so). The original tuning kept you out of that part of the delivery by restricting fuel delivery. So driving style will do the same thing.. a digital driver will fail one quicker than a nice smooth driver. Digital drivers are only full accelerate or full brake.. cannot drive a steady 70mph and constantly move the accelerator up/down 25% of the travel or more.. the smoother driver will only move accelerator 5-10% or less in a 10-15 second period. I found fitting a vacuum gauge smoothed my driving a lot.. try and keep a constant vacuum on a petrol is good for economy.
Just out of interest - do V8's have a dual mass flywheel or a normal one?
Spider1V
V8's are all 'a no option - automatics' and these do not have conventional flywheel but a ring gear and torque convertor arrangement.
It is only the manual models that can employ dual mass flywheels which use clutch pressure and centre arrangement.
Depends what age you are talking?
Late 90's 212D 312D 412D 120bhp 280Nm I5 cylinder OM602 DE LA
Early 00's 216cdi 316cdi 416cdi 616cdi 154bhp 330Nm I5 cylinder OM612 DE LA
Mid 00's 215cdi 315cdi 415cdi 515cdi 148bhp 330Nm I4 cylinder OM646 DE LA
Late 00's 218cdi 318cdi 418cdi 518cdi 181bhp 400Nm V6 cylinder OM642 DE LA
Cheers
Gav
I have om605 2.5TD with sprinter gearbox(maybe from 212D 2.7CDI). Put all togeather used, have even pulled russian belarus 80 trucktor pulled with stulled wheels, had little clutch smell, but no problems. 2 years now, all works perfectly. Bought new clutch essambly if something will broke to change it, but all keep working without problems... :)
Had problems with gearshifter cables, after winter swiming in one cable I got water, but after 2day warm garage parking all waporized.... Need to rebuild better maybe for offroading...
So for normal G use will work forever :) I even found on net posibility to buy I think 30% better than stock clutch..
Just wondered if White Van brigade only had Auto's , to stop them trashing gearbox's, but obviously not!
I am sure someone will correct me but I think 603 the highest manual powered Diesel Option in a G?
Sounds a nice conversion, please put some pictures up.
High torque ouput should not affect conventional flywheels. DMF were designed to smooth out torque transfer to make for a smoother transition and gear changes.
All this is simply de-skilling driving.
As usual I have a comment :-
There is nothing wrong with DMF's....they were fitted for a number of reasons ,not mentioned is the fact that they protect the whole transmission line from crank to diff wh is one reason not to weld them solid [guilty] or replace with conventional [also guilty].
I have seen 400.000 mile sprinter 312's where the dual mass flywheel is still good [quality o.e.] On the other hand our local tarmac contractor's year old 316 d/cab pick up with mini digger on trailer just eats them , averaging 3 or 4 months to failure....driver has size 14 boots !!
S/hand d m flywheels and clutches are cheap enough on ebay....just paid £100 for a lightly used ML270 set up.
Anyone?
So with all the torque about DMFs failing has anyone any experience of fitting standard flywheels instead?
What pictures do you want, if that message was for me? Under car all Om605 and cdi 2.7CDI gearbox. Needed to rebuild little wider gearbox tunel(I tryed to put engine max closer in car middle, not in original place). All gearbox parts original from sprinter.
If you don`t like Dual Mass Flywheel, there is always possibility to buy original old gearbox from w460, with bell from sprinter you can merry with om603 engine. I almoust put it in too, but it`s harder to find original G and w124 is not the same, not so relibable as original G gerboxes, but easy to get... But there was good deals on ebay some time ago...
Hi PR
Quite a common conversion especially in the van world.
The dealers wont offer, suggest or touch that option.
But factors all offer a Solid Flywheel setup for Transit and Sprinter etc
Twice the life, Half the cost....
No brainer really unless it's your own vehicle and you look after it, if it's a runabout mule that is used and abused your wasting your cash on a DMF...
Gav
JOIN THE GWOA
This website and forum are provided for the benefit of enthusiasts and owners of all Mercedes Benz off road vehicles, in particular the G Wagen. The costs of development, upkeep and provision of the site are met entirely by the annual subscriptions of club members. If you are using the site and are not a member of the G Wagen Owners Association please consider joining. You will have access to areas on the site that are not open to non members, to club trips and meetings and to technical assistance. In addition your contribution (only £25 annually) will help us maintain and develop our website for future users.
Who's new
- Jaffa_JIM_23
- Wrabstar
- GG
- KTMSCANIA22
- 280ge
Gav ,
Out of interest;
What is the highest powered Diesel Manual Sprinter Engine you can can get with a manual box?