hi all, my mercedes 300sd will crank strong but won’t start. i cracked an injector and found that it is not getting fuel to the injectors. i’d like a list of things that may be causing the issue so that i can go through them one by one. i plan on starting at the fuel tank and working my way forward to the engine. this car is our daily driver and is causing us a little stress as it just won’t start.
Clogged fuel filters will starve the engine of fuel.
There are three fuel filters on your car. The big spin on main filter, the in-line pre-filter and the filter screen in the tank. All three should be changed. Prior to changing the filter in the tank, make certain you don’t have a large algae infestation going on. You can kill the algae, but the dead stuff will just clog the filter. So kill first then change filters. Even if alive, the algea will clog the screen filter and give symptoms of no fuel.
If fresh fuel and filters doesn’t help, then you move on to the more expensive items…
The expensive items include the fuel pump. Have the fuel pressure tested to see if it’s within range if the filters don’t fix the problem.