New diesels won't run when the urea tanks is dry

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:34:00 EST

Filed under: Maintenance, Hybrid, Government/Legal, Green, Mercedes-Benz

Click above for a high-res gallery of the MB GL320 BlueTEC

Owners of the new crop of clean diesels will have another maintenance item to concern themselves with if their new cars are equipped with urea injection. The EPA requires that all diesels meet strict new emissions standards, which almost always requires the use of either a NOx trap or urea injection. To ensure that the system is working, a sensor checks both the level and the quality of the urea solution and will keep the car from starting if the tank is empty. The new VW Jetta TDI doesn't use urea, but the new Mercedes-Benz BlueTEC vehicles do. According to Mercedes, a counter will appear on the dash when there are twenty starts remaining. If the driver ignores the message, the car will not operate until at least two gallons of urea solution is added to the tamper-proof tank that resides in the spare tire well.

Engineers have designed the urea tanks to be large enough to last about 15,000 miles. This should be large enough that drivers never run out, as the tanks will be checked at every schedules service. As an alternative, small bottles of the urea solution will be available for owners who want to maintain the system themselves. The cost of the urea solution, which MB refers to as AdBlue, will mirror the cost of diesel fuel, so a refill shouldn't cost more than $30 or so. Before anybody asks, yes - urea is a component of urine, and no - peeing in the tank will not fool the sensors. You've been warned.

Gallery: 2009 Mercedes-Benz BlueTec SUVs

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

New diesels won't run when the urea tanks is dry originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mercedes-Benz launching urea-injected diesel SUVs this fall

Sam Abuelsamid — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:34:00 EST

Filed under: SUV, Green, Crossover, Mercedes-Benz

Click above for a high-res gallery of the MB GL320 BlueTec

Urea injection will finally arrive in the U.S. when Mercedes-Benz launches fifty-state-legal diesel versions of its ML320, GL320 and R320 BlueTec models. Mercedes says these U.S. light-duty diesels will be equipped with AdBlue injection that allows them to meet this country's strict Tier2 Bin5 emissions standards. To live up to that, Mercedes will have to ensure that vehicles are shipped before BMW gets the X5 and 335d into customers hands this fall. The Mercedes vehicles are using a 3.0L turbo diesel V-6 putting out 210 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque, while using urea injection (like the diesel BMWs and upcoming diesel VW Touareg and Audi Q7) to almost completely eliminate NOx emissions. Called AdBlue, it is a solution of 2/3 water and 1/3 urea that reacts with NOx to create nitrogen and water.

The urea is contained in a 7-gallon (8.5-gallon in the larger GL) tank that should only need refilling about every 15,000 miles. In addition to the urea NOx treatment system, the trio also have diesel particulate filters to eliminate almost all of the soot. With these vehicles being T2B5 compliant, that means they will also meet the future Euro6 standards. The ML- and R-class diesels will be rated at 18/24 mpg, while the heavier GL comes in at 17/23. That compares to 15/20 for the ML350 with a gasoline V6 and 13/18 for the ML550 with a V8. The E-Class sedan will also get the urea treatment in 2009 after the next generation model debuts.

Gallery: 2009 Mercedes-Benz BlueTec SUVs

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]

Continue reading Mercedes-Benz launching urea-injected diesel SUVs this fall

Mercedes-Benz launching urea-injected diesel SUVs this fall originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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