Down shift, check engine light, V8 grumble, power loss, and a burning smell. (20 sec)

Please do me a favour. Run two tanks of fuel back to back with Techron concentrate. We might have a dirty injector here.
On my drive, everything made great sense. Perhaps, since my car wasn't driven for two or so weeks, cylinder four's injector became partially clogged, returning my misfires. I guess the injector wasn't very clean to begin with when the misfires before I left came along.
Results to follow. I'm making many trips today!

I had a issue with throttle position sensor glitch two nights ago, so don't feel too bad. lol
start the car, puts it in reverse back out the garage and driveway, puts it in drive, notice no power, figure it is a tranny slip from not grabbing the gear since it has happened before, down-shift, waited, and go, and 10ft later the engine just shuts off.....
restart the car, throttle blips by itself as if it's gasping for air between idle and 1200rpm, restarted couple more times and back to norm.
no error codes...although i do think my fuel pump is possibly dying which is the only conclusion i can come up with for that symptom.
Last edited by FrankW; Jul 17, 2010 at 08:59 PM.
I had a issue with throttle position sensor glitch two nights ago, so don't feel too bad. lol
start the car, puts it in reverse back out the garage and driveway, puts it in drive, notice no power, figure it is a tranny slip from not grabbing the gear since it has happened before, down-shift, waited, and go, and 10ft later the engine just shuts off.....
restart the car, throttle blips by itself as if it's gasping for air between idle and 1200rpm, restarted couple more times and back to norm.
no error codes...although i do think my fuel pump is possibly dying which is the only conclusion i can come up with for that symptom.

Let's try & clean injectors first. 2 tanks with Techron concentrate will take the injector back to as new clean. If it then gives crap then maybe replace.
Long before then - you have not answered when last your car had a fuel filter & before we mess with fuel pumps we need a fuel rail pressure test.
The Best of Mercedes & AMG
And what can explain the 50 miles of trouble free wide open throttle spirited driving, and then misfires to follow later? It baffles me!

Last edited by laneshift; Jul 18, 2010 at 12:51 PM.

Like this

From what I can see at the moment things look OK but I can't read the plug properly.

Again, thanks for being such a supportive bunch!
The low grumble noise is basically the engine bogging down. Power is lost. The car must be restarted to regain power and the noise goes away. If it's still confusing to understand, I can take a video.
Car starts fine. Upon startup, there is no pop pop pop from the exhaust, it's smooth. When the car is fully warmed up, it's only slightly choppier.
I'm getting a loud, loud belt whine. Sounds like I have an unmuffled kompressor. Sounds cool, though will it cause problems?
Thank ya.

That loud belt whine is the tensioner pulley. If it really pisses you off change it. They all go sooner or later & have been improved.
Last edited by Glyn M Ruck; Jul 22, 2010 at 06:10 PM.
That loud belt whine is the tensioner pulley. If it really pisses you off change it. They all go sooner or later & have been improved.
That fuel filter does not seem like a fun job. Oh well, what must be done, must be done.

Yes it's safe to drive in limp mode. It's done to protect things.
The filter is not too bad to do with your capability. If that does not help we had better get that compression test done & maybe we are heading for an injector. We can do that but there is a chance it will be money wasted.
Yes it's safe to drive in limp mode. It's done to protect things.
The filter is not too bad to do with your capability. If that does not help we had better get that compression test done & maybe we are heading for an injector. We can do that but there is a chance it will be money wasted.
This is where I get confused. If I have poor fuel pressure, wouldn't all my injectors be causing misfires?
Or is the techron all part of the scheme? We're cleaning out injector four, while giving back maximum fuel pressure, which should cancel out the misfires, correct?
Lastly, if the injector is just faulty, we'll replace that.
Is that the correct road to take?
Thanks!
Edit: Also, can someone please explain limp mode to me a bit more? My car is terribly choppy and sounds absolutely horrid when limp mode kicks in. I guess that's regular?






