Hi.
I am a new member though I have lurked here in the past to get some help with a high mileage (estimate 220K miles but odometer broken) 1988 300E I bought a few years ago and still drive.

Last week I bought a 1991 300CE with 59,000 miles on it in near perfect condition. The only thing that does not work perfectly with the entire car is a severe stumble or hesitation that occurs when starting from a stop. It does not seem to matter if the car is warm or cold. The cars feels like it is going to stall but does not ever stall...after about 3 seconds of chugging it takes right off. At speed the engine is very smooth and quiet with no problems. The hesitation occurs only when starting from a stop and seems to be worse under load such as starting from a stop on an uphill. The transmission shifts crisply and drives very much like my 300E which has a fresh transmission.

So far I have changed the oil air and fuel filters and I have a new distributor cap and rotor on order and will install this week. The Bosch spark plugs are brand new. I'm going to run some sea foam through it today.


Has anyone had similar problems and if so what did it turn out to be? At least I could start there.

Also was this twin overhead cam engine used on any other models?...getting parts for this car at the local stores is much harder than for the 300E.

One last question when I pulled the spark plugs the cables have these long bulky connectors on the plug ends. In my car all six do not look the same... 4 connectors are silver metal and black rubber and on the others they are made of a hard orange/red plastic material and black rubber...the same stuff that the distributor cap is made of. The metal ones are marked 2K ohms and the plastic ones are marked 1K ohms. Should they all be the same type cable and which is the correct one and would this even matter?


Thanks in advance for your help.


Chuck

 

i had the same problem for a while in my 91 300ce. i put in a new o2 sensor and that fixed things for me...well, temporarily until more problems started kicking in.

 

we had a similar problem. tried all the same stuff. Plugs, O2 sensor etc. and it turned out to be two dead Fuel Injectors. not idea if this is the same problem u have but just thought u might want to look into that as a possibility. but im no expert LOL.
-Zach

 

Let us know if you run the sea foam in your car. I know mercedes does not reccomend ANY additives but sea foam always seems to improve a hesitation. I believe the other posters have some excellent advice. You certainly have a few choices. Good luck.
kurt

 

find a good independent mercedes mechanic.

problem solved.

 

First, congrats on your new aquisition. I own a '91 300CE myself and have for the past 11 years....they are great cars! Mine turned 210K miles recently.

I'm not a DIYer, but I know that an accurate diagnosis the first time is much less aggravating and costly than have it taken care of at the first sign of trouble. I have not experienced your specific issue and do not subscribe to the method of simply throwing parts at the problem.....

Seek an experienced and recommened shop in your area.

Bet of luck to you!

 

Chappy

I see you are also in Atlanta. Where do you have your CE serviced for stuff like this?


Thanks

 

I haven't heard of this process or product before. I getting that can 'assist' in the area of hesitiation when starting off....I have a 95 e320 with a very slight hesitation...curious

 

PM sent.

 

Hi,

I have had the same problem with my '90 CE. I am guilty of "throwing parts at the problem", to be honest. Start with the cheap stuff first, trust me. Do a google search for "BG44k". It's a fuel system cleaner. I had this hesitation problem and replaced all plugs, wires, injectors, rotor, a coil pack, oxygen sensor, had a valve job/head gasket repair, tranny R&R, etc etc... the list goes on, trust me. I've had around $7k of repairs done since I've owned the car (about 2 and a half yrs). Each time I took it to the shop, the problem would go away for around 100-200 miles. Then it would come right back.

I got sick of forking out the money for repairs that didn't seem to help that much, so I just ignored the hesitation issues. One time I took the car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change, and they convinced me to try their fuel system cleaning. The changed the fuel filter and the oil filter, changed the oil with synthetic, and ran the cleaning program (it wasn't BG44k, but something similar). They hooked some kind of mechanism up to my engine.

I was a little nervous about letting these guys touch my car this way... Then they started up my car and ran the stuff through, and tons of white smoke billowed out of my car. The employees had to step outside because it was so bad. I was getting freaked out... When they were done, the car had a little trouble starting. Then I was really freaked out. But it started up eventually, and man I'll tell you... It was as smooth as silk. The car jumps off the line now, and I can't even tell the car is running when at idle. My car has been running flawlessly for the last 2k miles now.

So try the basic/cheap stuff first!!!