300TE Auto - keeps cutting out!! Help!!

[k67ghk]

I hope that someone can help with this!:cry:

We have a 1987 300TE Estate automatic and over the last 6 or so months we have been having a nightmare. The car just keeps cutting out and there doesn't seem to be any pattern; it can happen when the engine is cold or warmed up, sometimes once pulled over and started again it will start up with no problems, other times it will take a good while until it will start again!

It just seems like suddenly all power is lost whilst driving along. Also whilst the car is idle at lights etc the rev counter (not sure on technical terms!!) goes all over the show!

We have taken it to the mechanic a few times and relevant things have been changed: distributor cap, rotor arm, air filter & an additive added to the fuel tank. None of this has been successful. Also sent to have "krypton" tuning but they could not find a fault either.

Over the last month we haven't even bothered to drive the car as it has become so unreliable and so the alarm had killed off the battery. We charged this up and then the car worked fine for a whole week until yesterday when it cut out on me at a set of lights and then once I got it going again, continued to be dodgy all the way home!! :cry:

I would be extremely grateful if anyone out there can give me some advice on what it is that could need doing and also prices

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[television]

If there is no spark when it does not start, I would change the crankshaft sensor, around £40 from Bosch

 

[k67ghk]

Thanks for your quick reply! Sometimes there is a spark and engine starts and other times not - there is no consistancy with the fault!

Would you still recommend changing the crankshaft sensor?

Also, is this a job that can easily be done by my better half or would we be better off sending it to the mechanics?

 

[television]

Item 22 in the link, you can do this yourself, its easy

http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.as...GM=717.450&CT=M&cat=520&SID=15&SGR=075&SGN=04

 

[k67ghk]

Excellent, thank you

Have also heard that it might have something to do with the fuel filler cap?! Any ideas?

 

[television]

Excellent, thank you

Have also heard that it might have something to do with the fuel filler cap?! Any ideas?

Well I trust that you have checked that the fuel pumps are running, the fuel cap would not affect a cold start

 

[k67ghk]

Yep, fuel pump is running fine, I had just read a few threads with people having the same problems as us and the fuel filler cap seemed to be mentioned a few times.

Thanks for the advice though, we will look into this tomorrow

 

[television]

Yep, fuel pump is running fine, I had just read a few threads with people having the same problems as us and the fuel filler cap seemed to be mentioned a few times.

Thanks for the advice though, we will look into this tomorrow

When the car is cold or not been started there would be no vacuum, that was all.

Alway difficult to answer these threads but the crankshaft sensor has cured the most cars Bosch are ½ the price of MB, there is a Bosch part number on the sensor

 

[k67ghk]

Great, I really appreiciate the quick advice

Thanks again!

 

[pugboy]

K67ghk, my car has the same symptoms (1990 300ce), totally unpredictable, cuts out, sometimes starts on the button and runs perfect, other time cuts out randomly. Had it in to Merc Specialist last week but not found cause. Let me know if crankshaft sensor does the trick please if you try that.

Cheers

Chris

 

[Captain Flack]

My Dad's 300TE had the same problem and it was simply condensation in the distributor cap. If you haven't taken the cap off yet it's worth checking and will cost nothing.

 

[k67ghk]

Going to run it by our mechanic tomorrow and see what he reckons before we spend out any more on the car.

Will let you know though!

 

[k67ghk]

My Dad's 300TE had the same problem and it was simply condensation in the distributor cap. If you haven't taken the cap off yet it's worth checking and will cost nothing.

Thanks for the advice, we have put a new distributor cap on and this has not helped to solve the problem.

 

[Robin Thorn]

Engine cutting out and bad idle

We had a similar p-roblem on our W124 300TE 4matic. The problem after £1,000 for investigation was found to be a faulty over voltage relay.

 

[schumacher]

Hi
have you tried taken the air filter box off and cleaning all the throttle linkages around the throttle body with wd40 and dont forget to clean the round disc it pushes down give that a clean to some times it gets a bit dirty it seemed to have solved my problem,its also free

 

[k67ghk]

We had a similar p-roblem on our W124 300TE 4matic. The problem after £1,000 for investigation was found to be a faulty over voltage relay.

Thanks, will mention to my other half as he is the technical one!

 

[k67ghk]

Hi
have you tried taken the air filter box off and cleaning all the throttle linkages around the throttle body with wd40 and dont forget to clean the round disc it pushes down give that a clean to some times it gets a bit dirty it seemed to have solved my problem,its also free

I know that the air filter has been changed but do not know if the surrounding area was cleaned, will check and if not give it a go!
Thanks!

 

[k67ghk]

If there is no spark when it does not start, I would change the crankshaft sensor, around £40 from Bosch

Wondered if I could pick your brains again?!

Just got off of the phone from Euro car parts who have quoted me about £75 for the crankshaft sensor, I made sure they were quoting for the Bosch make, am I being ripped off?

Also, have noticed if you let the engine run on the car for 20/30 mins before driving off (not very practical but it works!)then the fault does not occur, do you still think that it could be the crankshaft sensor?

I would really appreiciate your help!

Thanks again!

 

[television]

Wondered if I could pick your brains again?!

Just got off of the phone from Euro car parts who have quoted me about £75 for the crankshaft sensor, I made sure they were quoting for the Bosch make, am I being ripped off?

Also, have noticed if you let the engine run on the car for 20/30 mins before driving off (not very practical but it works!)then the fault does not occur, do you still think that it could be the crankshaft sensor?

I would really appreiciate your help!

Thanks again!

These things are £45 from bosch, if you have a multimeter you can test it when its faulty and the car will not start, it will measure 1k ohm good or 100k ohm when faulty, and thats almost open circuit, It is temperature problem.

Obviously I cannot guarantee that this will fix it, but as I said you can measure it in the faulty condition