CLK550 Engine Shaking/Stalling
I cleaned the MAF sensor and the throttle body but did not make a difference.
It does burn quite a bit of oil, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. The oil change did not make any difference either.
What do you guys think might be happening?




Ensure the engine cover is properly seated over the MAF housing
Check for any loose/disconnected vacuum lines
Check of have your battery checked
Use a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner
I've had those symptoms with defective spark plug coils and ECU, but those issues also gave a CEL.
I'm sure the engine cover is on properly, and the battery has been replaced. I will check the vacuum lines and try Techron but I think the problem is similar to yours.
Even when I first bought the car, it would randomly start misfiring, and it would go away with turning the engine off and starting it again. Shortly after the CEL came on, so I took the car to a workshop and there appeared to be a problem with cylinder 2. We also found that coils on 1st and 2nd cylinders had been numbered and switched. It seemed like the previous owner had been dealing with some problem with coils, but switching them back actually turned off the CEL. The car stopped misfiring for a few months but it came back, so I decided to change all the spark plugs and also the coils on 1st and 2nd cylinders. After a few months, misfiring again. Now I went around all the cylinders with a new coil until I found the one causing the misfire. It's been like that since then, and I've had no problems with misfiring, but not it shakes and stalls.
How did you find out which spark plug coils were defective, and how can I check if my ECU is not causing this problem?
Last edited by Sabadara; Feb 15, 2019 at 01:52 AM.




I could drive the car 400 miles without any problem, park it, restart it after 15 min and it would misfire. After changing the wiring and coils I started getting CEL indicating insufficient current for coil 5. It took me a couple of tries but finally got this ECU repair place (I would not recommend them) to check the firing logic circuitry since it seemed to me that 2 coils were apparently drawing current at the same time. I had them replace 2 logic ICs since the ECU is tuned and I did not want them re-flashing it.
If while it is misfiring you spray (mist) some water on the ECU and the problem readily goes away, it could be the ECU. In my case, when the car is moving there would be sufficient airflow under the hood to keep the ECU cool enough. When I parked, the heat from the engine and no air flowing would cause the ECU to act up. If there is a poor connection on the ECU, it could act up with temperature changes hot to cold or vice versa.
There was another thread on an intermittently failing ECU where the OP did several steps to isolate the ECU and he found a really good ECU repair resource on EBAY.
I am not getting any cel or codes of any kind. It is not misfiring, but seems like a rhythmic anomaly. Someone had a video of a 550 doing the same thing, and listening at the intake it makes a different sound for a half a second and then back to normal almost like a gurgle of some kind. Maybe it's the sound of the throttle plates opening as it counters the dip in rpm.
I've read a lot about this, and people change the pcv and maf, map, and the problem seems to come back.
Can someone explain the idle circuit, and does it have an idle pintle?
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