E 230 MISSFIRE - HELP!

[Paul_Hart]

I have a 1997 E230 that has developed a missfire. The cars done 130,000 miles and until now has been fine. Ive changed the plugs and they all appear to be burning evenly and have the right colours. The car still goes well enough (EVENTUALLY) but is very slow to accelerate particularly when cold. It has all the symptoms of fuel starvation or possibly the ECU has a fault.

Does anyone have any suggestions before I take it to Mercedes.

Paul H

 

[steveperry]

If you're getting an okay spark then the only other items that jump out to me could be that one of your fuel injectors is blocked, or but I'm less certain on this next one you could have a faulty Mass Airflow Sensor (MAS). Trouble is I'm not sure if your '97 E230 would have been fitted with a MAS. If it is, then that would be my prime suspect.

Unfortunately this is all guess work, your best bet is to get your car's engine management system (ECU) hooked up to a Star Diagnose computer so that its fault codes can be read, you'll then know exactly what the nature of the problem is. Stealerships will want to charge anywhere between £35 to £40 for this function but you could also take your car to an independent Mercedes garage such as our Andy Gayle (Birmingham based) or George Fraser (N.W. London based).

S.

 

[willydog]

have you checked your HT leads? if they are still the original ones you might as well change them as they are well past their best at 130K

if you do decide to replace your HT lead remember to go for some decent
ones as cheap ones don't last and is false economy. i once had a misfiring
problem and the garage replaced them with some cheapo brand HT leads which only lasted 5k before the misfiring came back. I then got some Magnecor HT leads instead and everything has been fine since then.