Hey guys,

I have a 2002 E320 and yesterday the CEL went on and has stayed on ever since. The car makes a strange rattling sound when idling, but it sounds like it is coming from under the car and not the engine compartment when I listened for it. It drives completely normal and it doesn't even make the sound at every idle, only sometimes and most often after coming home from longer trips.

Any ideas what it could be? The car was brought from a friend of the family whose father passed away. It only has 29k miles on it, but it sat unused for a long period of time (not sure exactly how long, but months). Could that be causing it?

Thanks for any and all help,

Chris

 

Sounds like a catalytic converter. I believe the warranty on these is 80K. Had mine replaced on an '01 wagon this past summer, no charge.

Rick

 

Ditto, and I don't think there is a year limit, just the 80,000 miles. Somebody else described this problem as sounding like there were marbles rolling around in the exhaust system.

 

I don't know about the cat converter, I am haning the same problem with my 2000 e 320 and its the #2 cylinder that is misfiring, I got a new coilpack for $156 and that did the trick...my car idles very rough and drives perfect once I step on the gas, sounds like the same problem, I would try that before the cat.

Chris