brettscafe

I have a 1988 300E that stalls at stoplights/stop signs while idling. This stalling occurs 1 out of every5-6 car trips (and never when the repair shop has it). My repair shop doesn't want to do anything unless they witness it stalling. When the car does stall, it will stall while idling and though it restarts right away, the engine will die in a matter of seconds. Eventually, I can get the car going (slowly)if I push the gas pedal all the way to the floor.
The car sometimes has difficulty starting and will stall when backing out of a parking space. During a "stalling" episode, I will have to restart the car 7-10 times during the car trip.

Work that's already been done: 1) caps/distributor/rotor changed,
2)tune-up, 3)fuel injectors flushed 4)oil changed recently, 5)idle valve changed, 6) fuel pump relay changed, 7)spark plugs changed, 8)battery changed.

Nothing has solved the problem. Any suggestions? Thanks.

brettscafe@yahoo.com

rflanagan

I can only sympathise. I have an 88 230 which does the same thing. I read up the earlier posts which suggested the idle control valve which I haven't gotten round to yet but it's disapointing to note that you've already tried that. I end up turning off air-con everytime I slow down (and it's hot, hot here) to give it a chance but it still cuts out. I also have trouble getting it to accelerate. It struggles through the first couple of seconds and then either takes off or stalls....painful on a roundabout. Just recently I've had the fuel pump changed.

Z300E

Try the over voltage protection relay - relatively inexpensive, less than $100.00. Next try the Mass Air Flow Sensor - a little pricey, but, you can do it yourself. I have a 93 300E 2.8 and these seemed to work.

vntperformance

I too have a 93 300E and I have the same problem... car has a very loopy idle.. and then once it warms up... it just dies. And it belches out black smoke? I dont see any CE lights.

please help....
vnt

rflanagan

I have just got my hands on the Haynes workshop manual and sorted out part of the problem for me.

I have adjusted the accelerator cable to sit back against the idle switch, adjusted the transmission control pressure thingy as per the book (about 1mm between spacer and end of cable) and tweaked on the fast idle and it seems to me to have helped immensely. Still a little cut out but that seems like I just need to raise the idle.

slan...Rob