citruspilot

Engine code again! Had another cylinder drop off line this afternoon. Wife drove it which is rare and she pulled in the driveway with a definate misfire. This will make the third coil I've had to install in just the past 1,000 miles or so. Only 5 to go! Granted, I dont drive alot, maybe 7/8,000 miles a year. But to have two fail since December and now a third just pisses me off.

I have 155,000 miles on my E420. Is there an average service life for these things. Do they make about 10 years then start to fail? Yes, its cheaper to replace them one at a time, but its still a pain in the *** to never know when your car will drop a cylinder. At this rate I should have all mine replaced by the end of the year. Bad part is I just got my brake lining wear indicator light yesterday. Went to the MB store this morning and bought all new brake pads with indicators, about $145.00 in parts. I havent even installed them yet. Now throw in the coil and thats another $75.00! Oh the humanity!!!!!

Jeff

Racin_fool

are you also replacing the supressor ends or just the coils themselves? also, when was the last time you checked or replaced your spark plugs?

citruspilot

Are the suppressor ends the rubber sparkplug boots? I havent replaced any of them but they all look good. In addition I replace the sparkplug on the cylinder as I replace the coil. So in other words I havent replaced all the plugs yet just two since December and now this cylinder when I change the coil. Each plug I replace looks like its fairly new, ie no major wear on the electrodes and the plugs look young.

Is that bad?

Jeff

citruspilot

Got a new coil and spark plug today. Installed them in about 25 minutes. Started right up and no miss. After about two or three starts and a short drive the engine code cleared too. I am getting real good at changing these things.

As a matter of fact I put the front brake pads on yesterday. That was easy too. I even installed a new radiator in this thing about 3 months ago. You know, these things arent that hard to work on. So, why do they charge so much at the dealerships??

Jeff

ProV1

citruspilot, i also have a 97 E420 with 111k miles and it just started having bad idle problems, it wants to drop the rpm to below 400 and die.. she hasn't actually stalled on me yet but the car jerks around pretty hard.. damn embarrassing.

i'm thinking about just unloading her for like $6500 or doing a ebay no reserve auction and get whatever i can get

citruspilot

Well, send me some photo's and mechanical info. I might be interested. My wife thinks I'm crazy but I like to tinker with these things. If you have a decent car and the price is right I might just buy it. I am an expert at installing coils now!

I'm a gluton for punishment too.

Boeing717Driver@carolina.rr.com

Jeff