firlandsfarm
Member
I have a 380SEL W126 in reasonable condition with c.170k miles. I have no experience of Mercedes so while I would describe myself as a reasonably competent "home" mechanic with good practicle knowledge of the internal combustion engine I have little knowledge of things like sensors etc. My last project was a full strip and rebuild of a 1968 Lamborghini V12 which I proudly upgraded from condenser ignition to electronic ignition! It runs beautifully without a sensor in sight.
My problem started about a year ago when on long journeys (say after 2 hours or more motoring without a break). I pulled away from stationary and experienced a short but complete cut-out, no jumping, no spluttering just a full stall with a dead tacho needle. Then the engine cut in again just as suddenly (before it and the car came to a stop) and I continued my journey experiencing the problem intermittently but only when pulling away from tickover. There is never any warning, tickover is fine and the engine always cut-in again before everything ground to a complete halt.
I mentioned it to my local dealer who said he could not find anything wrong (and so did not charge me!).
I continued to use the car and experience the problem which became an "inconvenience", I just got used to it but still could not see any common trait except that it become more frequent and the "required journey time" become progressively less. Unfortunately it has now reached the point where it is a problem. It can now happen over shorter journeys (30 - 40 miles) and more frequently when it does but never when I am due to take it for a service! Now it also sometimes brings the car to a full stop but when it does so it restarts without any undue cranking. The only other symptom that has developed (which may or may not be related) is that sometimes when coasting to a halt from higher revs. (over 2,500) say, when approaching a roundabout, the engine drops through tickover and stalls, sometimes it catches and recovers. The effect can be illustrated by reving the engine while the car is stationary, sometimes it cuts-out when lifting the foot off the accelerator and sometimes it doesn't.
I renewed the distributor cap and rotor arm recently just because they looked badly pitted but that has not made any difference (I did not expect it to because of the full in or full out nature of my problem and that it only happens when pulling from tickover).
Does anyone have any clues? Is there something that hands over the running of the engine from tickover to drive that might be delayed in taking over and that can be influenced by work/temperature?
All input gratefully received.
Farmer
My problem started about a year ago when on long journeys (say after 2 hours or more motoring without a break). I pulled away from stationary and experienced a short but complete cut-out, no jumping, no spluttering just a full stall with a dead tacho needle. Then the engine cut in again just as suddenly (before it and the car came to a stop) and I continued my journey experiencing the problem intermittently but only when pulling away from tickover. There is never any warning, tickover is fine and the engine always cut-in again before everything ground to a complete halt.
I mentioned it to my local dealer who said he could not find anything wrong (and so did not charge me!).
I continued to use the car and experience the problem which became an "inconvenience", I just got used to it but still could not see any common trait except that it become more frequent and the "required journey time" become progressively less. Unfortunately it has now reached the point where it is a problem. It can now happen over shorter journeys (30 - 40 miles) and more frequently when it does but never when I am due to take it for a service! Now it also sometimes brings the car to a full stop but when it does so it restarts without any undue cranking. The only other symptom that has developed (which may or may not be related) is that sometimes when coasting to a halt from higher revs. (over 2,500) say, when approaching a roundabout, the engine drops through tickover and stalls, sometimes it catches and recovers. The effect can be illustrated by reving the engine while the car is stationary, sometimes it cuts-out when lifting the foot off the accelerator and sometimes it doesn't.
I renewed the distributor cap and rotor arm recently just because they looked badly pitted but that has not made any difference (I did not expect it to because of the full in or full out nature of my problem and that it only happens when pulling from tickover).
Does anyone have any clues? Is there something that hands over the running of the engine from tickover to drive that might be delayed in taking over and that can be influenced by work/temperature?
All input gratefully received.
Farmer
