MBE 4000 Mercedes engines.

I love my mercedes 450! I dont think i will find a better engine as far as mpg goes.

 

Getting close to 700,000 miles on my 05. It did have the head gasket and liner update at 300,000, a new EGR cooler somewhere along the way and a new turbo-brake assembly under the extended warranty. It was the brake that malfunctioned, the turbo was fine.

How many 2005 EGR engines had the original turbo, EGR valve and injectors at 600,000?

The only out of pocket repair I've had so far was 4.5 hours to fix an oil leak at the filter housing. It was a gasket. Everything else has been routine maintenance.

6.5 MPG pulling a flat @ 65 MPH, not even trying.

IMO, the complaint about being underpowered is more of a specking issue than anything else. They seem to run best at 14-1500 RPM while returning pretty fair MPG.

 

MBE 4000.

We have two of them , one 2004 columbia with a 13 speed and 24.5" rubber . The second is an EGR equipped 2005 Columbia with 22.5 rubber, and one old 1994 pete with a 435 Cat .

Here are the mileages : 1994 Pete : 4.4 million KM - 2004 Columbia : 1.9 million km - 2005 Columbia: 1.7 Million Km.

We do not have our own garage and rely on local garages for maintenance and the dealers for complicated issues.
We are in Montreal and it gets cold here, the trucks are parked outside for up to 48hrs and are simply plugged in during the winter. The MBE 4000 are the easiest to start in winter , by far rarely needing a boost.

All we do is maintain the units well, changing oil and filers regularly. We always swap a gallon of oil for a gallon of LUCAS , no matter where the oil changes are done.

The Pete cannot out-pull the MBE 4000 with a comparable load, the Columbias will generally finish up a truck- length ahead up at the top of Elizabeth hill in New York .

The Caterpillar is simply a beast, bought used in 2001 , we have changed nothing but the water pump in 2001 a week after the purchase and two injectors by mistake in 2009 when a bare wire rubbing on the block was the actual culprit. We have had the main bearings done this summer , mechanic pulled 4.4 million Km off the computer. We were not sure of the real mileage because this is the second speedometer and this one has already spun around once.
This is a 357 and not aerodynamic. it gets 2.5 Km /lt. the 2004 Columbia 2.71 km/l and the 2005 Columbia an impressive 2.97 KM /l. The MBE have both had turbos changed and idlers and such but are not excessively problematic. You just need to service them well. But the 1/2KM /liter fuel advantage is not negligible it translates to 1.25 mpg advantage, at today's fuel prices and would lead me to buy another MBE400.

 

What little bit of driving I did behind one it felt underpowered to me.

But, by the same token, I drive a single-turbo 6NZ CAT (set at 475 horsepower). That engine can lug down to 900rpm and pick up loads like they're not even there, roll into the throttle nice and easy. No mashing on the pedal to get it going.

 

MBE400

The engines are very quiet and that may be why they feel underpowered, ours are mated to 13 speeds and run 3.7 in the rear.

As I said they can keep up to our 435 Cat. The only difference being that they are much better on fuel.

What may differ here is that we generally run loads in the 18000lbs to 35000 lbs range, we rarely gross over 78000lbs.

 

wouldn't alesser rear axle ratio like 2.93 give a better mileage especially for light loads?

 

We bought a 2004 freightliner with Mercedes motor runs fine but it does have a tapping noise in the motor we knew this before we bought it . The noise is not real loud dose,not change when you drive it . What I mean it does not get louder and its not loosing power anybody have any ideas.we are gonna take it to the shop Monday.We have a Mac and a Volvo husband been trucking for 21years not new he does most of our truck repairs just want some opinions. Its pre-egr its a 10 speed

 

Pretty sure it isn't. The MBE was introduced to replace the 12.7 DD60 when the 02 emissions regs went into place.

 

Actually, MBE 4000's weren't EGR until midway through 2005. Carbon credits or something to that effect was the reason.

 

Agree. The place I used to drive for had four 2004 pre EGR Mercedes. The leasing company we got our's from had around 100 of them.