Starting / idling problems with '97 E230

[lfelton]

Advice anyone? From idle the car runs very, very rough and can stall. After a couple of minutes all is well, EXCEPT that intermittently it will rev too high (1500is) and keep that up for around a 1/4 hour+. The high revving will (of course) never ever show itself whenever we take it to a garage! Of late, my wife (it's her car) has complained about some hesitancy when accelerating - again intermittently. We've had the car from new & it's done 104,000. MB and our local specialist have looked at it many (many) times and the diagnostics report a faulty air mass sensor. We've had this sensor changed THREE times now and each time the problem remains the same. The local MB specialists suggest that the "throttle actuator" is the next thing to change, but are not certain that this is the problem. As this is going to cost upwards of £700, I wondered whether (a) does anyone have any advice on this problem & maybe how to diagnose it further (b) the cheapest way to replace or repair the throttle actuator. On this last point, I saw somewhere that "BBA-reman.com" remanufacturers throttle actuators, but I could not see these on their site. Is a "throttle body" the same thing?? BTW (& I don't know if this is relevant) the cruise control (I understand this is in the throttle actuator as well) works perfectly.

Any help gratefully received!

 

[samthedog]

idle problems

You can fix this easy. dealer will tell u its engine management etc,not so just buy a can of carburettor cleaner about 2quid and spray all linkages and carb butterfly. worked for me. good luck

 

[jberks]

The above advice on repair is good. Nobody ever fixes anything these days, just swap them out. It does sound like the actuator, but there are so many things that can do similar things it's hard to say.

I've put this out a few times, but, you say it never misbehaves with the garage. This is a common problem. My solution (used twice now with great success), is to book the car in with the specialist so you get a loaner, and get them to agree to simply use your car to go to work and back, and collect parts, sandwiches etc themselves for a week. They are happy enough with a free car, and the problem is bound to show up in a week of normal usage.
Hasn't failed to get an intermittent fault fixed yet.