Hi, I was driving my GF's C230K the other day when it just lost power (but didn't stall). The rev's dropped to about 1200 rpm and did not respond to throttle input. (2002 C-Coupe 6-Speed)

I pulled over, turned the car off and restarted the car. At this time, the car seemed fine and I drove a little more. 30 seconds later, it did the same thing. I pulled into a parking lot, left the car off for about 10 minutes and then started the car again, it didn't happen again and has not happened again since then. (Friday Afternoon). To clarify, I was cruising at about 40 MPH on a straight road when this happened.

My 4 guesses so far as to what the problem is:
1. Faulty key - The car has shut down on me a few times while making very hard turns (talk about dangerous). My GF has never had the car shut down on her (mind you she probably drives it less than me and she doesn't take any hard turns). We are thinking it might be my key being faulty (something loose inside perhaps)?

2. Bad Gas - Since the problem has not returned, perhaps we had some bad gas at the bottom of the tank. (The tank was 1/4 full when this happened). We filled up the tank after the incident and as mentioned before, the problem has not come back.

3. Faulty Fuel Pump - This could explain the problem with the car cutting out going straight and during hard turns. Perhaps the fuel pump is faulty or in a poor location to pick up fuel during hard turns.

4. Electronic Gremlins - I sure hope it's not this because this may take forever to diagnose. Especially since there were no engine codes when this happened.

Any ideas as to what the problem is?

Have any of you guys encountered the same problem? If so, how was it rectified?

 

Hello

FWIW, I owned a C230K for 5 months, and I had several problems of a similar nature, equally as scary as the car would completely die at any speed, also without any engine malfunction codes. MB replaced (among other things) the fuel pump, and in the brief time we had use of the car after the fuel pump was replaced, the problem did not reappear. Our car spent a total of 34 days at MB in the 5 months we had it. We eventually decided that a lemon law suit was not worth the time, and traded it on a Volvo.

Just as worrying was the fact that the C320 wagon loaner did exactly as you describe - proof positive that these problems are not limited to just the C230K.

 

Yikes, that scary stuff.

Yeah, it IS very dangerous to have the car lose all power on the middle of the road. I had to pull over (since I was in the left lane) and some guy behind me didn't expect me to stop (even though my hazard lights were on) and almost rear ended me.

I will bring your suggestion up when I talk to the dealer. Thanks!

Anyone else have any suggestions or input?

 

this is the first time I have heard anyone having the problem of losing power in a manual tranny.. i have seen several posts earlier where people would just lose power and no matter how much gas they gave it just stayed in idle... these were all auto tranny cars...

did you happen to try and downshift or anything?

 

The SECOND time it happened, I tried downshifting and the power came back but I was still wary about what was going on, so I pulled into a parking lot while I still had power.

 

It sounds like the car went into the "limp Home" mode. There is a section in the owners manual about it. Scary that it happens suddenly at speed. Sounds like something is wrong if it is putting you into that mode. Wonder what error codes the dealer will find?

 

I had several (4 or 5) instances of engine stoppage - loss of power, pull over and the engine was barely running in neutral, check engine light flashing. The first time it happened I was accelerating down an on-ramp to the interstate, acceleration was poor so I thought I must be in 6th instead of 4th gear. Shifted to 3rd, and still would not accelerate. Teleaid operator said to try a restart, and it drove okay. After the next failure, a couple days later, I took it to the dealer, who installed a replacement fuel pump assembly (in shop for 10 days, mostly waiting for parts). No problems with stalling since then (10,000 miles).

 

My car does the exact same thing. Sometimes it comes right back, sometimes i have to lift off of the throttle to get any response, sometimes I just have to wait. It has been to the dealer once, they said that there was nothing wrong with the car, and in their phone call with MB USA, they said that I was probably driving with my foot on the brake and the gas at the same time. I was a little offended.

I have to take it back this week to have the rear glass replaced due to poor radio reception, and they are going to try to work on the problem some more. I will let you know if they come up with a solution.

I am still hanging in there, though.

 

In response to my previous post, my car is also a manual trans. It threw no codes on the problem at all.

 

I have an '02 C230 6-speed that has the exact problem the author described. It will drop to about 1200 RPM's and will not respond to the pedal. It corrects itself in about 5 seconds or so. It has happened in first gear coming from a standstill, and it has happened at freeway speed in 6th gear. Once it cancelled the cruise control. The problem is that it happens VERY intermittently (like once every few weeks) and the dealer hasn't been able to replicate it.

My car has been at Smythe European in San Jose for 5 days now, (for the second time) and they don't seem to have a clue. They say they've checked for TSB's and they aren't sure what to do. Honestly, if this were something like the radio had a problem this infrequently--I would probably ignore it. For this problem though--it really is a safety issue. Any suggestions?

 

I've had about the same problem, car lost power, revs went down, but it didn't stall, cruise control stoped etc.

With mine it was a faulty switch on the break pedal. After the readjusted it everything was find...
It it is this problem your brake lights should be on when it happens (but you won't feel the car decelerating like you are breaking).

Mark

 

They said they already checked the brake switch. Any other thoughts anyone?

 

has anyone had this with the new 1.8L in the 2003 C230's???