1997 W210 E320 V6 Petrol - Engine Stutter/Vibration

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bigalxyz

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A strange thing happened last night.

I've had my E320 for about 6 weeks now & most of the driving has been very gentle stuff, motorways, drifting around town, rarely going over 3000rpm.

Last night I stomped on the pedal & decided to see what it would do flat out.

Once the engine hit about 4500rpm it started to stutter & shake quite badly, and the revs wouldn't go higher. I eased off the power straight away and slowed down, but there was still a vibration (even at idle) & a noticeable loss of power, so I pulled off the road & turned off the engine. No warning lights on the dashboard or anything like that.

When I turned the engine back on again, the vibration had disappeared & the loss of power was gone too. Engine running as sweet as a nut again - and it still is.

I tried to replicate what had happened a couple of times, but to no avail - revved beyond 5000 with no trouble.

Any idea what might have caused it? Should I be concerned? Is it likely to be some kind of electronic glitch?
 

Steve@Avantgarde

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E300 Coupe AMG Line PP/NE, SLR McLaren Roadster, SL55 & C32AMG
You have a misfire or self adaption fault, likely causes are MAF failure, HT leads or blocked KATs.

You will need a STAR test to see what fault codes are stored.
 
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bigalxyz

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Thanks Steve.

A bit more info if it helps. I was able to reproduce the problem this morning. It only seems to happen in kickdown mode with the auto box in D. Revs hit 4500, engine stutters, gearbox then changes up and the vibration & loss of power happen. Engine off & back on again & all is well.

When changing gear "manually" using the 4321 settings of the auto box, this doesn't happen at all - it all behaves fine - will rev to the redline, no vibration, loss of power, etc.

Anyway, thanks for the info. Car is due its MoT shortly so I'll probably kill two birds with one stone & ask them to do a diagnostic test as you suggested, to see what it throws up. In the mean time, the car seems to be fine otherwise.
 

rallen

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E320 2001 / CLS 320 2007 / SLK 280 2006
i had similar problems with my E320 2001. The engine would operate normally up to about 2500 rpm but if you floored it, or kicked down, it would stop revving up, it would sort of get stuck at about 3000-3500 rpm. A specialist mechanic told me it was some sensor in the inlet manifold, and described it as a "very common" fault. So he changed it and ... no improvement.

I then decided to change the spark plugs, which were in average condition and do not think were responsible for the inability of the engine to pull, to rev. But then I paid attention to the coils that are mounted on the engine block and are labelled with A and B, as each cylinder has two sparks. I took those coils out and realised that there was a lot of corrosion on what appeared to be a shaped metal contact between the coil and the engine block. I used a rotary mini drill with various attachments to remove layers of rust and dirt and polished the contacts, and it took a lot of time, and now the engine works really well. I am not 100% certain if it was the sparks or the coils responsible, but the problem is now gone.
 

rallen

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Thanks Steve.

A bit more info if it helps. I was able to reproduce the problem this morning. It only seems to happen in kickdown mode with the auto box in D. Revs hit 4500, engine stutters, gearbox then changes up and the vibration & loss of power happen. Engine off & back on again & all is well.

When changing gear "manually" using the 4321 settings of the auto box, this doesn't happen at all - it all behaves fine - will rev to the redline, no vibration, loss of power, etc.

Anyway, thanks for the info. Car is due its MoT shortly so I'll probably kill two birds with one stone & ask them to do a diagnostic test as you suggested, to see what it throws up. In the mean time, the car seems to be fine otherwise.

Ah I now notice you have said that if you shift gears manually then you do not get the stutter.

Well I have had another problem with my E320. There was a faulty seal on the auto gearbox where a bundle of wires comes up into an ECU board mounted at the top of the engine. Unbelievable as it may sound, the electrical fields created by those wires managed to "suck up" gearbox oil from the gearbox and into the ECU which was almost 1 metre higher. The wires would look absolutely clean but the oil would flow against gravity and inside the core, and into the plug and the ECU. The ECU is housed inside a plastic container and the container and the two plugs and sockets were immersed in oil. I had to keep draining and washing the ECU and the container for months until we had that gearbox seal replaced.
 

Steve@Avantgarde

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E300 Coupe AMG Line PP/NE, SLR McLaren Roadster, SL55 & C32AMG
This will be an engine fault for sure, get the codes read is the best advice I can give at this stage, everything else is speculation and conjecture.
 

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