Black230

Last night I was traveling South on Highway 826 (Palmetto-South) at about 65mph and all of a sudden the car died of power (engine-wise). My lights were on and all interior lights were on and the engine just died, no sputter no hesitation, just dead. Behind me was a huge Amoco Fuel Rig that missed me by inches. After three hard jabs against the accelerator and a quick restarting of the ignition while coasting at about 10 mph, it fired back up and resumed as normal. The car is now at MB being looked at. This is serious, power can cut out when you need it most, which can cause a huge accident, especially where I was in the middle lane of a highway. Anyhow MB thinks that it might be something that they didn't quite put back together correctly in the last 4 attempts to correct the incorrect fuel reading and probably crimped a fuel hose or something cutting power to the engine completely. I don't know but I'll let you guys in on it as soon as I get word.

vinmanc32

If they did something wrong, I highly doubt they will own up to it and if they do, it wont be to the full extent. They cant and certainly wont incriminate themselves. Thats not to say that they will tell you a bold face lie, but they may twist the truth. Good luck with the repair.... that is a very serious issue. you could have been seriously hurt or killed as you mentioned. Just glad that you are here writing about it instead of someone else writing about you.

raymond

Hey Black230

Welcome to the club! My C230K has done the same thing on 3 occasions at various speeds, so far MB has replaced the trunk SAM (first repair) and the entire in-tank fuel pump assembly. They first fed me a load of bull about the Smart key being at fault, but changing to the spare key didn't help. So far, since the fuel pump replacement, the car has behaved (as far as this problem is concerned).

Good luck. See my post in the thread "What? Me Worry" for a more extensive list of our problems to date.

Good luck!

Raymond

Fuzzo

something like this happening 1 time is Not acceptable.. but can be chalked up to being a freak thing..but it happening 3 times.. damn .. that is defnitely not cool...

i wouldn't even know what to do other than the fact that i would be mad at something or someone.. that is just outright dangeourous

speedfrk

Safety related issues like this should be reported to the NHTSA so they can start monitoring the situation in case there needs to be a recall. Go here to report an issue http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/
This really should be reported if several people in this forum alone have had it happen.

Deb

Hey Black230,
That is scary. We will all be interested in hearing the outcome for your car. The engine on my c coupe faltered just momentarily once while I was driving. It was so brief that I didn't really understand what was happening before it was over and the engine resumed as normal. It didn't lose power, engine just faltered briefly. It hasn't happened again. I have about 2100 miles on the car. Which dealer is working on your car? I bought mine at Bill Ussery Motors, but I have had no reason to take it in for service, so I have no info on their repair shop.

Since mine is a manual, I wonder what would happen if it stalls and I pop the clutch to restart it at highway speed? Obviously, I've only ever started a car that way at slow speeds (while being pushed), so I don't know what stresses are put on an engine to do an emergency restart at speed. Guys, ideas?
Deb

raymond

Deb

You've just raised an interesting point. My C230 has cut out on three occasions, but, being an auto, one has to stop dead, put the thing in park and then restart it. One time was in the middle of an intersection on I35, in peak hour traffic. The fact that we weren't rear-ended is a miracle in itself.

Tonight, the C320 loaner refused to pull away from a light, it crept forward at about 5 km/h, my wife then put her foot down, and about 5 seconds later, in the midst of honking from the other cars, it took off like a bat out of hell.

What really worries me is that this seems to be a common problem - what are the odds of this happening to us with 2 totally different cars, one of which we've had only for a week?

Anyone else experiencing this type of problem?

Black230

Deb,

my car is being serviced at Mercedes of Miami, but I bought it at Bill Ussery. I never go there for service due to the situation I had there with my trade-in. I don't trust them anymore after that. Anyhow, I got a call today from my advisor and was informed that the factory had to get involved because everything that their foreman performed, Mercedes just wanted to back it up a bit more with extra measures since it was a safety related issue, therefore they were waiting on some engine computer reset codes to be sent from Mercedes. The foreman will drive my car for the day to see if it acts up after the system has been reset with new codes from Mercedes, and I will get it back tomorrow. I have been in a Jeep Liberty for 4 days now and it just sucks-It's been raining down here and that things brakes just lock up at 30 mph without any hard effort causing it to hydroplane all over the place. Pulled up last night into KFC, and it skidded into the bushes by the sidewalk, Funny and Scary. Can't wait to get my car back. After the KFC incident, I've been driving my Audi instead of the rental to avoid hitting someone. Anyhow, I will inform you of the exact codes and measures they took to correct the problem when I receive my service record tomorrow. On the question of restarting it, since mine is an auto., I quickly pushed it to neutral and managed to fire it up. On stick cars yeah you can pop the clutch while coasting though not at a high rate of speed or the car will jerk violently (be careful) but it can be done.

Lynn

The use of the proper gear to restart the car will not result in a violent jerk. If you are running 65 mph, use fifth gear. Don't use second or you might find youself spinning off the road in car with a damaged drive train.

Black230

Lynn,

thanks for covering that end, Yeah what I meant was it will jerk violently at high speeds at a lower gear, but yeah at 5th it shouldn't be a prob.

Deb

Black230,
I remember now your experience with B. Ussery. I'm not surprised you are going elsewhere. As I said, we will all be interested in the outcome. I hope all is fixed soon. Thanks for any info.


Yeah, Lynn, that is about what I had in mind too.

Many moons ago when I was a teenager, I popped the clutch on a Ford Falcon to start it. I was on a steep driveway and let the car roll backwards, popped the clutch, and was dismayed when the motor mounts broke and the engine dropped out. My southern gentleman of a father never said a cross word. I could never bring myself to tell him that I had it in first gear. And I've always wondered if being in a forward gear while rolling backwards when I popped the clutch is what did it???
Deb

Lynn

Backwards motion and a forward gear will do it every time. My ex-sister-in-law managed to put the automatic in my dad's Z-28 into reverse while traveling at 75 mph. She locked up the rear tires, and I don't know how she kept the car going straight. I guess '83 Z-28's are like Chevy pick-ups, built like a rock. The only damage was the flat spotted tires.

raymond

Maybe MBTech208 can comment, but I was told by my dealer that the fuel gauge problem is well-known, and the only solution is to replace the entire fuel tank inner assembly, which comprises 2 fuel gauges and the fuel pump.

What I'm thinking is that when they repaired your gauge, they _may_ have replaced the entire assembly, and you still had the engine death problem. This leaves me worried again, as I've had all sorts of assurances that replacing the fuel pump will have fixed the engine death problem.

I'm thinking that the questionable safety of the car is starting to outweigh the prestige of driving the three-pointed star... I suppose if you do get run over by an Amoco truck and survive, they'll say it's because you're in an MB. sigh.....

Black230

Finally got my car back today. After spending a whole day with it driving it, the foreman informed me that the resetting of the engine's computer with new updated codes from MB solved the problem, they didn't write the codes on the customer's workorder copy. Also I had them look at my car's steering problem once again for about the 4th time. My car's steering wheel would shake from left to right when coming to a stop and the wheel was off centered at about 1 o'clock. This had been a problem since the first time I ever serviced the car, and they had re-aligned the car and rotated and balanced the wheels and the car would still do it, so after this last repair, I was informed that my two front rotors and pads were replaced and the car was realigned. The original rotors were apparently warped and beyond their normal wear range, amazing at only 8,000 miles and my pads had prematurely worn out excessively(and I don't ride my brakes and I am not hard on them either). But anyhow, this time they took care of the shaking for good and now the car drives like a real Benz should.


Raymond, by the way yes my fuel tanks inner assembly was replaced twice. Apparently the two sensors from the first repair attempt were also bad, so after the 2nd attempt, they were ok. The 3rd attempt required replacement of the actual gage itself which had a fault and now the fuel gage is awesome and accurately reading.

pokerFACE

sorry, I don't have a manual, so I must ask this question:

What's wrong with putting the car into neutral and then restarting it? Some starter interlock feature?

pokerFACE

<bumpity bump>

pixmation

The engine of my C230K died once at around 15 mph while exiting a left hand turn. However, I was the passenger so I just thought he cannot drive.

It never happened to me while I was driving, there were several occasions that I felt the engine has lost some power but didn't die. So I am not sure.

I am thinking since my car is in the shop already, should I bring it up to the service rep or just drive until I have more concrete incident.

Edmond

mb-roots

happened to our friends and their old c-class, too.
they were going on the autobahn, at about 140kmh.
dont know what they did to repair the car.