13th Dec 2014, 04:50
My 1998 Musso 4WD auto 3.2 litre wagon has been in an RACV garage for 3 months.
Engine turns, but does not start. Fuses, fuse box, etc all checked out, crank angle sensor checked out.
After several weeks, the fault was with the ECU. The ECU was sent to a Melbourne garage, & took another month before I was told that it's not repairable.
Can someone please help, I've been asked to look for the VDO ECU Model A1625453032, with matching theft module, card reader & keys. I've spent several hours on the web without any luck. If you can provide useful help, please reply to tonyg123@hotmail.com.
Thanks in advance!
27th Dec 2014, 19:50
Hi, Trevor from Aus. I have a 2005 Musso Sports. The auto won't select. I can hear it trying, and when I put it back into Park, it gives a small grind, but I can push the car while it's in park. Some ideas would be great.
19th Feb 2015, 14:17
Hi from Nigeria. I own a Musso 97, and it was not starting despite it turning over. Sometimes I go to get gas in it, and at the fuel station it refuses to start. I had the plugs changed and the starter problems stopped, but the idling and acceleration became very rough. I wonder what spark plug specification is recommended for a 97 Musso with a V6 engine?
14th Mar 2015, 00:08
My 1998 Musso 3.2 petrol has the stalling issue also. I want to find out the fuel immobilizer bypass instructions??
30th Jun 2015, 10:01
Is this forum is still active? There are lots of questions I have in mind, with my Musso 661 TDI automatic 2005.
10th Sep 2015, 05:34
Hi, I am having the same problem in my Musso and changed the crank sensor, but it is doing the same thing. What can it be now?
18th Sep 2015, 22:02
G'day, I have a 1996 Musso Wagon with the 3.2 litre Mercedes petrol engine and running gear. Reading the forum comments, it seems that intermittent cutting out is a generic problem. This vehicle is giving me the same problem and is now totally unreliable, resulting in none of the family being willing to drive it. I am reasonably mechanically minded and thought that the matter was fuel starvation, however looking at all the electronic comments, I am not so sure. Does anyone know if there are more filters between the tank and engine bay, other than the black round filter on the left side near the engine. Or any ideas on what else I should be looking for? Any suggestions will be appreciated.
7th Feb 2016, 21:37
Bang spot on!!
Been happening to me intermittently but yesterday at the supermarket. I did all my usual steps to "try" to fix this problem and nothing worked so I looked up this issue on the Internet and saw the first post. Suspected the poster was correct immediately, so I looked at my groceries and found some frozen peas. Wrapped it around the box and then went to try the start the car.... and presto!!!
My heart felt thanks goes to the poster with the solution :)
28th Feb 2016, 03:06
Have a 1998 Musso 3.2 petrol. Starts rough, runs like a hairy goat when cold, but picks up as it warms up. Have changed out the coil packs, replaced the plugs and leads, replaced fuel and air filters, removed and cleaned both air mass sensors. Checked vacuum hoses.
Are there any other items that I've missed or maybe a solution that I haven't thought of? Thanks in advance for your help.
16th Mar 2016, 11:52
Hi guys,
Got a Musso (year 2000) 2.9 turbo diesel here in the Philippines.
Looked robust with a Mercedes star - for the drive train I learned.
1. Where do I get a workshop manual / info? I need to check the vacuum system that stops the engine, regulates some stuff on the engine and for engaging 4 wheel drive.
After a mechanic visit it stops, but the hoses are blocked with a screw, one hose missing on top of... I'm guessing turbo waste gate, 4x4 does not work.
2. The engine rattles and shakes at low revs like crazy. What can it be?
7th Oct 2016, 22:45
Hi, we have have a 2007 2.9 diesel Musso Sports. I was driving it and heard a horrible noise, then it just died; it will turn over, but not fire. Checked the oil and there's none on the dip stick. Is it stuffed, or is there a safety thing that will prevent it from starting again until the oil is at a safe level?
17th Jan 2017, 11:31
I believe I am 6 years too late to respond to the cutting out problem of your Musso. But if you still have it, the solution I can assume is, if your car is automatic transmission, the control wires going into the transmission get wet with transmission fluid. The sealer rubber ring in the wire harness is worn and ATF is leaking out, which shorts out the cable connector. This causes your engine to shut off.
1st Feb 2017, 06:49
Good day. I have also struggled with the starting when hot with my Ssangyong Musso 1998 2.9 diesel. After changing starters, vacuum hoses and numerous other things to no avail, I replaced the battery with a good brand. And guess what, it worked.
Now I am in need of the vacuum diagram. The guys who worked on the car left a pipe not connected and I can't seem to find where it fits.
Please help.
5th Mar 2017, 19:56
96 Musso 3.2L inline 6 (Mercedes Benz M104) engine. 4 speed Auto.
These have the genuine Benz manufactured Engine/Transmission.
Issues - some fixed, some ongoing.
1) Turns over, no start. Solution - Over Voltage Protection relay. Metal can with fuse on top next to brake booster. Replace or repair - usual issue is dry solder joints on internal electronics. Resoldering the joints fixed mine.
2) Not accelerating from idle - significant delay and/or stalling under load from idle. Lack of top end, couldn't get over 100kmh or so. Solution - partial. Changed throttle body. This restored top end and improved idle somewhat and improved ability to move off from idle. Probably due to faulty throttle position sensor in the throttle body. Benz part no 000 141 6525 (same as on S Class I believe - non ASR type throttle body). Replaced with S/H with 99k on it.
3) Missing at idle/under load. Prob plug leads - was worse after some water got into the top of the head where plugs leads and coil packs are. 1 coil pack has been replaced - could also be one or more of the others breaking down. Noticed some plug leads have splits in the boots, so will be replacing on general principles.
4) Clunking or knock from one side front when turning tightly. Probably CV joints need replacing, noticed one has split boot so probably lost lubricant/dirt got in.
5) Stalling under load from idle. Related to throttle body issue, changing it improved this somewhat but still present, engine will stall when trying to move off from idle under load or will not accelerate from idle - just crawls - a bit scary when trying to cross an intersection - then when it creeps up to around 1200 RPM or so, suddenly starts to accelerate properly. Basically a lack of throttle response from idle under load.
History. The car was bought after the previous owner had extensive work done. Had timing chain break (lack of maintenance!!!) which resulted in bent valves etc. Head rebuilt with new valves, timing chain, chain guides and new crank angle sensor. He also changed HFAM (air mass sensor) and one coil pack. It appears (judging by six used ones in a box in the boot) to have had new injectors fitted at some point, not done by previous owner, but probably owner prior to him. Then had OVP relay fail which he couldn't figure out - that's when I bought it. Am working with the Merc trained mechanic who rebuilt the head - he was still chasing the fail to accelerate from idle without a significant delay issue when the owner gave up due to the OVP fail and sold it to me. Handy.
The car is very good at speed - cruises effortlessly at 110kmh (speedo seems to be around 7kmh over reading for some reason) and accelerates normally on the road when above the 1200 RPM or so mentioned. Prior to changing throttle body this was not the case, so it was definitely faulty.
Other possibilities are: HFM (again - seems unlikely - was replaced with Bosch original - be aware some aftermarket clones may not work properly or for long).
Fuel pressure regulator, and/or vacuum line to it - the connector is split and cracked - THINK I have stopped it leaking but... fuel pump (seems unlikely given performance at high speed). Fuel filter (looks original - which at 212,000km is probably not a good thing, but again, high speed operation seems fine so probably not) Air filter element. Needs replacing - has a MB part no but it seems to be the wrong one. Am told a poor air filter can create odd issues, so will replace with proper part.
One other strange issue - took it to a mechanic where it had codes read out previously, but his $8k gadget was unable to communicate with the ECU or TCU. He was puzzled as it worked on previous occasions. He is blaming an update to the software (possibly to suit the later Daewoo built versions with a Bosch ECU vs the VDO unit in mine). Be aware that post 98 Mussos are NOT the same power train as the earlier ones, and the online manual that is floating around for the Daewoo Musso has some significant differences, specifically the ECU is different - different connectors and pinout - I had to find a portion of a Mercedes Benz manual for the M104 engine to get the right pinouts for the connectors - the VDO ECU for the mid 90s E320 appears identical. Any part with a Benz part no on it can safely be ordered from Mercedes Benz instead of SsangYong for the pre 98 Mussos with the genuine Benz engines. There is a rubber hose/connector that goes from the top of the throttle body to the air duct above; when we changed the throttle body it had bonded to the old one and tore when we tried to get if off. After waiting a day for a call back from the SsangYong dealership, I rang Mercedes Benz and quoted the Benz part number. No problem, one in Melbourne, will be here overnight, ship it to you straight away. 66 dollars all up and it duly turned up when they said it would. SsangYong dealer eventually rang back after two days to tell me it would take 4 weeks to get one. You have been warned. Consequently I use all MB parts wherever possible. Mechanic used MB genuine parts to rebuild the head as the same thing from SsangYong was ridiculously expensive. I only go to SsangYong for something that is not part of the drive train and only if I can't get it from a wrecker (I could have got a new throttle body from MB, but at $1,000 I decided a used one at $75 plus freight was a better idea). When this thing is going well, it's got a ton of grunt, acceleration leaves a 4l Landcruiser for dead.
ECU failure at high mileage usually manifests as missing on 2 cylinders that run from the same coil pack that is not fixed by replacing the coil pack. Cause is driver transistors in the ECU coming away from the glue/heatsink compound that bonds them to the heatsink. This is not hard to fix. Other types of ECU failure for the VDO ECU are uncommon. Not sure about the Bosch version in later models.
If anyone out there has solved the dying under load from idle/no throttle response from idle til 1200 RPM issue, I would be pleased to hear from them - if I fix it I will post the solution here. In general the pre Daewoo Musso is mechanically very good (typical Benz) and faults are mostly due to poor maintenance or age related electronics issues (OVP relay and sensors mostly).
The vehicle is not (quite) OBD2 compatible, however there is an application for PC called "HFMSCAN" from Russia (where there are lots of Mercs and Mussos it seems) that will read the VDO ECU in mid 90 Mercs and Mussos. You need a 14 pin round to 16 pin OBD2 adapter and a KKL Vag-Com 409.1 OBD2 dongle with USB - note that an ELM327 based OBD2 Bluetooth adapter will not work. The guy that writes the program also customises a Wifi based OBD2 adapter that will work with any OBD2 based software such as Torque. Around 86USD but he is in Russia - been around for a while. I have a KKL coming and will let you know how it goes, have the adapter cable already. Same guy can also provide a customised version of HFMSCAN that allows realtime reading of all engine parameters that go to or from the ECU. He charges a fee for this, but I think it will be well worth it as it allows you to do the same thing as Star Diagnostics does for the Merc at a minuscule fraction of the price. Needs a file from HFMSCAN that is created when it interrogates your ECU sent to him to do this.
Hope this helps someone.
Geoff
18th Mar 2014, 09:24
I have the 1997 Musso with the 3.2L petrol engine. It has all the symptoms that a lot of other owners have. The engine stalling and erratic idle. I replaced all vacuum hoses, as they crack and suck air through or just fall off; this fixed the erratic idling... The stalling was in the immobilizer key pad, as I was having to press the button again to restart it... now it runs perfect.