We took the Westy in for service, and were greeted by a nasty surprise. There are two really ugly, expensive problems that happen to these Sprinter engines – black death, which is fuel that leaks from the fuel injectors and bakes on, becoming impossible to remove, and carbon buildup. The latter is what we have. There’s a bad glow plug, causing the check engine light to be on, and it will not come out for anything. The shop broke both of their extractor tools on it, and finally sent us off without it being fixed.
For now we’re just leaving it alone, since forcing it out can sometimes damage the cylinder, requiring an *extremely* expensive repair. We got a computer that reads the engine codes so we can tell if anything else goes wrong besides the glow plug, since the check engine light is stuck on.
On the bright side, the engine is all tuned up, oil changed, and broken sway bar brackets replaced. She should be all ship-shape for a while, aside from that damn glow plug.