MBWagonNut

Last week I noticed that my E500 was taking just a little longer to start while turning over. After a couple days of this it would start any more. It would still turn over, but not start.

I checked the codes and I had a P0335, crankshaft position sensor. Having owned a couple of W210s, this problem was familiar. Ordered a new cps and installed it. The car would turn over but still not start.

At this point I moved on to the fuel system. I pushed the pin at the pressure testing point and some fuel came out, but then no more came out when I cranked it. I listen for the fuel pump but could not hear it. Seemed obvious.

Pulled out the fuel pump and tested it and it works fine, apparently the fuel pumps in these cars are very quiet.

Not sure what to do next, I dumped a little fuel into the intake to see what would happen. It started and ran. I test drove it for a bit and it ran ok, but would stutter when I pushed the accelerator pedal. I figured maybe I got some air in the fuel system and just had to work it out.

I parked it and let it run for a while. After about 15 minutes of running it shut down and I haven't been able to get it started again except for a few moments.

It seems to act like it's starved for fuel as the few times it momentarily started it would stall if I pushed the accelerator.

Since I've replaced the cps and ruled out the fuel pump, I thinking it might be either the left side of the fuel delivery system where the fuel filter is, or it was the cps all along and I introduced something into the system when I pulled the fuel pump.

Current status is turning over and acting like it's going to start, but not actually starting, even momentarily.

Any ideas of what else I could try before I go pulling the whole fuel system apart?

Thanks!

Wil Benz

MBWagonNut

Well, it took a lot of screwing around and letting my car sit for weeks at a time but it ended up being the sending unit/fuel filter. Replaced it and the fuel pump with some aftermarket stuff plus a harness for the newer style fuel pressure sensor and it cost me about $140 total. This doesn't include the cost of a new battery, which was the 13 year old factory battery that finally gave up on me while this was going on.

I did end up wasting about a month (but really about 8 hours) because the fuel line that attaches the fuel pump to the sending unit didn't clip on correctly. I ended up chasing down other ideas while the fuel pump was pumping fuel back into the tank, lol. I was falling asleep one night and the answer popped into my head, went out to the car the next day and had it running in 15 minutes.

C3Duece

congrats and thanks for posting the solution!