W210 E200 No acceleration from cold

[Willi Eckerslike]

Hi all,
Our 2000MY E200 Petrol auto estate has developed a strange fault. Every morning for the last couple of weeks, starting from cold, I back out of our drive, crawl a few yards to a T-junction, then go to accelerate out into the traffic, and.......no power! Even with my foot to the floor, the car just crawls, and only slowly (10 seconds) picks up power. The engine remains smooth, with no apparent "missing", and the car is faultless when warm.

There are no displayed fault codes on the dash, and it doesn't appear to be a gearbox fault, as the same thing happens if I manually select first gear before setting off (i.e. it's not stuck in second, for example).

Any clues? Mileage is 80,000, and it will need a service in 1500 miles.

 

[Willi Eckerslike]

Just to update my own Post, I booked it in to my local MB main dealer for it's "A" service and also asked them to look at this particular fault.
When hooked up to their diagnostic machine, no fault was found. However, they "cleaned up the throttle body", and also found that a "throttle position switch" possibly had dodgy contacts, which they cleaned up.
Since then, on cold starts the car is a lot better, although I'm sure it is not as responsive as when we first got the car (20k miles ago). I'm wondering that now the weather is significantly warmer, it may be masking the fault?
I'll report back if the fault re-appears.

 

[star]

at a guess, air mass

 

[colechelle]

seen a lot of them 210,s with undervoltage faults in gearbox due to battery u,s drive up the road put some charge back in, turn off and restart and fault gone, new battery job done, not saying this is your prob but worth getting battery checked!!

 

[cobra]

had the same problem on a bmw this morning, no power for the first minute to minute and half, changed maf sensor perfect after, this problem shows no fault codes usually.
cobra

 

[Willi Eckerslike]

Just to complete the loop on this one, the fault became chronic, yet still intermittent. A further service by the MB main dealer found no faults (yet again). In desperation, I changed the MAF sensor myself (from maf-shop.com), and the car was transformed. Instantaneous pick up from cold or hot, with no hesitation. The car drove beautifully once again, and has done for several months now. Thanks to replies above who confirmed my suspicions. Job done!

 

[television]

Thank you and always nice to have an update

 

[Wirral_guy]

Out of interest, would this be the same on a diesel? My 270cdi is very sluggish for a couple of minutes on cold start-up but runs fine the rest of the time. It pulls OK but it is almost like the engine is lubricated with treacle until a bit of warmth gets in.

Dave

 

[television]

I do not think so,,as they do not do much on a cold engine,,but you can always unplug it and try the car

 

[lukejr]

Similar issue with my year 2000 E200 petrol with 145,000 miles. It is extremely sluggish once started and I need to let it warm up for 2+ minutes before I drive it or it'll be rough and will not accelerate past 30mph even with foot to the floor. Once warmed up it is fine.

I have noticed that accelerating is slow in general even going from 40mph to 60mph, but once it is cruising on the motorway at 75mph it is perfect. Motorway driving I get up to 49MPG (UK) one 100 miles so no issue with efficiency.

What's been done so far by my mechanic:
- Fuel filter replaced as the fuel pump is making a louder than normal hum.
- Thought it might be a mis-firing engine coil but that wasn't it
- New catalytic converter installed
- Cleaned the carbon off something (can't remember exactly what)
- Changed the transmission oil.

So kinda scratching heads now on what else it could be, I'm tempted to get a new battery and see if that addresses the issue as the battery hasn't been changed in years. Also I'll mention the air mass to my mechanic too.

Thanks, Luke