Bubblechild
New Member
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I couldn't find any fault descriptions that exactly matched mine...any advice gratefully appreciated.
Last month I bought a 1990 300CE (150K miles) - an 'upgrade' from the 1989 300TE which I'd had for a year with no problems. Service history good (though not complete); test driving it all seemed well.
After a couple of days, I noticed a few problems - nothing major, but enough to surprise me since they'd never happened with the old car.
- Engine idling erratically. Sometimes fine: quiet and steady at 500rpm - other times strange: noisy, vibrating the cabin a bit, jumping from 500 up to 1250 and back again. When slowing down in traffic, the car would sometimes leap forward if you eased off the brake. No obvious relation to coldness of engine or outside temperature.
- Stalling. The old car never stalled once; the new one does so every 3-4 days, always at low speeds (0-15mph) but again without an obvious pattern.
- Starting up and then immediately stopping. This has only happened twice, in cold weather, and is fine if I hit the gas a bit.
I could live with all the above, but then a couple of days back something else happened, which seemed to be connected to the other problems, and felt like it might be symptomatic of a bigger problem on the way:
- Car started fine, then all the warning lights came on (reserve tank light, ABS light, battery light, oil light, etc), accompanied by a high-pitched whirring sound from the engine. Car didn't stall and appeared to drive okay. As I accelerated, the whirring sound got higher in pitch. The warning lights faded out and then faded in again, but not in any obvious relation to speed. The next day none of that happened until the end of my 15-minute journey, when the whirring sound returned and the warning lights came on. This morning none of it happened, though I only had the car out for a 5-minute run to the post office.
I haven't a clue what's going on, but have a feeling that I shouldn't ignore it. My friendly mechanic has just retired and closed down his garage, and though I have very limited DIY knowledge, I'd like to avoid a big bill at a MB dealership if I can, since all my spare cash just got spent on the car!
The Haines book seems to indicate that all the symptoms have one possible cause in common: 'vacuum leak at carburettor or throttle body'. I have no idea how to check for that, much less how to fix it, and the book doesn't help much.
Meanwhile, I need to do a bit of driving over the next few days, but am unsure whether doing so is likely to make things worse.
Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks!
Last month I bought a 1990 300CE (150K miles) - an 'upgrade' from the 1989 300TE which I'd had for a year with no problems. Service history good (though not complete); test driving it all seemed well.
After a couple of days, I noticed a few problems - nothing major, but enough to surprise me since they'd never happened with the old car.
- Engine idling erratically. Sometimes fine: quiet and steady at 500rpm - other times strange: noisy, vibrating the cabin a bit, jumping from 500 up to 1250 and back again. When slowing down in traffic, the car would sometimes leap forward if you eased off the brake. No obvious relation to coldness of engine or outside temperature.
- Stalling. The old car never stalled once; the new one does so every 3-4 days, always at low speeds (0-15mph) but again without an obvious pattern.
- Starting up and then immediately stopping. This has only happened twice, in cold weather, and is fine if I hit the gas a bit.
I could live with all the above, but then a couple of days back something else happened, which seemed to be connected to the other problems, and felt like it might be symptomatic of a bigger problem on the way:
- Car started fine, then all the warning lights came on (reserve tank light, ABS light, battery light, oil light, etc), accompanied by a high-pitched whirring sound from the engine. Car didn't stall and appeared to drive okay. As I accelerated, the whirring sound got higher in pitch. The warning lights faded out and then faded in again, but not in any obvious relation to speed. The next day none of that happened until the end of my 15-minute journey, when the whirring sound returned and the warning lights came on. This morning none of it happened, though I only had the car out for a 5-minute run to the post office.
I haven't a clue what's going on, but have a feeling that I shouldn't ignore it. My friendly mechanic has just retired and closed down his garage, and though I have very limited DIY knowledge, I'd like to avoid a big bill at a MB dealership if I can, since all my spare cash just got spent on the car!
The Haines book seems to indicate that all the symptoms have one possible cause in common: 'vacuum leak at carburettor or throttle body'. I have no idea how to check for that, much less how to fix it, and the book doesn't help much.
Meanwhile, I need to do a bit of driving over the next few days, but am unsure whether doing so is likely to make things worse.
Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks!
