Hi there! Just bought an '88 190E 2.3...with some issues.
07-08-2007, 07:39 AM
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Hi there! Just bought an '88 190E 2.3...with some issues.
Hi guys. New to the forum! My name is Aaron, and I live in Washington State, USA. Just bought an '88 190E 2.3 that I have jokingly named "Gretchen". I got her off of Craigslist from the second owner. The car's odometer (which does not work) shows 240k. I bought the car because it has a somewhat unusual (for this area, anyway) 5-speed manual transmission.
Every other one I looked at had the automatic...lame. Seems to have "euro" headlights, too.
The car had been sitting in a field for three years, as the previous owner had passed away. I bought it from his son, who was relocating. It is a very nice car, inside and outside, but it did not run. The owner suspected that it was the fuel pump, and had purchased a replacement. After I had towed the car 80+ miles to my buddy's shop (in Fourth of July traffic) I replaced the fuel pump, but nothing. Still wouldn't run. I dug into it further and discovered that the spark was intermittent at the plugs. Sometimes there would be spark, sometimes not. So my buddy and I figured that the ignition switch might be the problem. After messing with that for three hours, we finally found what the trouble was. Somebody had put a cheap-***, Made In Italy distributor cap on it, and the thing had arced out though the plastic where the coil wire attached! After putting a good Bosch cap on, it fired right up!
Now for the problem. The spark plugs are WET with oil.
It almost drips off, and it seems that oil is actually being forced out of the spark plug holes and through the spark plug threads! There is oil on all four plugs, but the #1 and #2 cylinders seem to be worse that #3 and #4. But the funny thing is that it DOES NOT seem to be burning any oil. There is no smoke of any kind coming from the tailpipe...under ANY conditions. I tried to make the thing smoke with my friend following behind me and he could not see anything. At all. I did a compression test...it came out 185-195-190-200. Any thoughts? Maybe valve seals?? Broken/stuck oil control rings? Or is there some mysterious Mercedes voodoo thing that causes this?
Car runs/drives great other than the weird oil on the plugs. Any help would be great. Thanks!
Every other one I looked at had the automatic...lame. Seems to have "euro" headlights, too.The car had been sitting in a field for three years, as the previous owner had passed away. I bought it from his son, who was relocating. It is a very nice car, inside and outside, but it did not run. The owner suspected that it was the fuel pump, and had purchased a replacement. After I had towed the car 80+ miles to my buddy's shop (in Fourth of July traffic) I replaced the fuel pump, but nothing. Still wouldn't run. I dug into it further and discovered that the spark was intermittent at the plugs. Sometimes there would be spark, sometimes not. So my buddy and I figured that the ignition switch might be the problem. After messing with that for three hours, we finally found what the trouble was. Somebody had put a cheap-***, Made In Italy distributor cap on it, and the thing had arced out though the plastic where the coil wire attached! After putting a good Bosch cap on, it fired right up!
Now for the problem. The spark plugs are WET with oil.
It almost drips off, and it seems that oil is actually being forced out of the spark plug holes and through the spark plug threads! There is oil on all four plugs, but the #1 and #2 cylinders seem to be worse that #3 and #4. But the funny thing is that it DOES NOT seem to be burning any oil. There is no smoke of any kind coming from the tailpipe...under ANY conditions. I tried to make the thing smoke with my friend following behind me and he could not see anything. At all. I did a compression test...it came out 185-195-190-200. Any thoughts? Maybe valve seals?? Broken/stuck oil control rings? Or is there some mysterious Mercedes voodoo thing that causes this? Car runs/drives great other than the weird oil on the plugs. Any help would be great. Thanks!
07-08-2007, 08:03 AM
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Hi guys. New to the forum! My name is Aaron, and I live in Washington State, USA. Just bought an '88 190E 2.3 that I have jokingly named "Gretchen". I got her off of Craigslist from the second owner. The car's odometer (which does not work) shows 240k. I bought the car because it has a somewhat unusual (for this area, anyway) 5-speed manual transmission. Every other one I looked at had the automatic...lame. Seems to have "euro" headlights, too.
The car had been sitting in a field for three years, as the previous owner had passed away. I bought it from his son, who was relocating. It is a very nice car, inside and outside, but it did not run. The owner suspected that it was the fuel pump, and had purchased a replacement. After I had towed the car 80+ miles to my buddy's shop (in Fourth of July traffic) I replaced the fuel pump, but nothing. Still wouldn't run. I dug into it further and discovered that the spark was intermittent at the plugs. Sometimes there would be spark, sometimes not. So my buddy and I figured that the ignition switch might be the problem. After messing with that for three hours, we finally found what the trouble was. Somebody had put a cheap-***, Made In Italy distributor cap on it, and the thing had arced out though the plastic where the coil wire attached! After putting a good Bosch cap on, it fired right up!
Now for the problem. The spark plugs are WET with oil. It almost drips off, and it seems that oil is actually being forced out of the spark plug holes and through the spark plug threads! There is oil on all four plugs, but the #1 and #2 cylinders seem to be worse that #3 and #4. But the funny thing is that it DOES NOT seem to be burning any oil. There is no smoke of any kind coming from the tailpipe...under ANY conditions. I tried to make the thing smoke with my friend following behind me and he could not see anything. At all. I did a compression test...it came out 185-195-190-200. Any thoughts? Maybe valve seals?? Broken/stuck oil control rings? Or is there some mysterious Mercedes voodoo thing that causes this? Car runs/drives great other than the weird oil on the plugs. Any help would be great. Thanks!
Every other one I looked at had the automatic...lame. Seems to have "euro" headlights, too.The car had been sitting in a field for three years, as the previous owner had passed away. I bought it from his son, who was relocating. It is a very nice car, inside and outside, but it did not run. The owner suspected that it was the fuel pump, and had purchased a replacement. After I had towed the car 80+ miles to my buddy's shop (in Fourth of July traffic) I replaced the fuel pump, but nothing. Still wouldn't run. I dug into it further and discovered that the spark was intermittent at the plugs. Sometimes there would be spark, sometimes not. So my buddy and I figured that the ignition switch might be the problem. After messing with that for three hours, we finally found what the trouble was. Somebody had put a cheap-***, Made In Italy distributor cap on it, and the thing had arced out though the plastic where the coil wire attached! After putting a good Bosch cap on, it fired right up!
Now for the problem. The spark plugs are WET with oil.
It almost drips off, and it seems that oil is actually being forced out of the spark plug holes and through the spark plug threads! There is oil on all four plugs, but the #1 and #2 cylinders seem to be worse that #3 and #4. But the funny thing is that it DOES NOT seem to be burning any oil. There is no smoke of any kind coming from the tailpipe...under ANY conditions. I tried to make the thing smoke with my friend following behind me and he could not see anything. At all. I did a compression test...it came out 185-195-190-200. Any thoughts? Maybe valve seals?? Broken/stuck oil control rings? Or is there some mysterious Mercedes voodoo thing that causes this? Car runs/drives great other than the weird oil on the plugs. Any help would be great. Thanks!5 speed is cool
