Very bad miss and eventual shutdown after 7 miles or 15 minutes

Jan 14, 2005 | 03:34 PM

rotartiller

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Very bad miss and eventual shutdown after 7 miles or 15 minutes

have a 1989 190e 2.6. It usually starts up fine cold. I can drive about 7 miles or 15 minutes and if I come to a stop it is missing. Sometimes it just dies and will not start. The engine will spin, buck, and pop and not start. Let it cool down for 30-45 minutes and she will fire right up. It did this once before and so I changed the distributor cap, rotor, plugs, and wires when I changed out the water pump and serpentine belt. That was a couple of months ago and everything seemed to run great. Now the problem has re-emerged and I am in a quandry as to what it could be. I took the new distributor cap off a week ago and the contacts were covered with with green crap and the contacts looked recessed more than they should. The rotor looked fine. It did not help the problem much. It did just a little. I took the cap off again yesterday because the car is stuck at work now. There was heavy carbon buildup on the contacts. I cleaned it and it runs worse than ever. Won't stay running smooth for even 5 minutes now. Anyhow, I am thinking maybe the ignition coil may be faulty. It is the only component I haven't changed since I've had the car. It might explain the carbonizing that is occurring. That could be due to a weak spark from the coil right? Someone else said that it could be an electronic pickup on the distributor or something. Any ideas? Could a vacuum leak cause something this extreme?

Remember: The car starts fine when cold. Runs good for about 5 miles then starts to miss erradically. I make it home if I am lucky. Miss is at its worst when pulling away from a light. Sometimes it will go dead on takeoff and not start.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.