naijaman

Hey guys!
I was on my way back from NY yesterday, and on the highway, my "check engine" light came on and remained on(2000 S430). About an hour later, the car started vibrating, and when I stopped to see what the problem was, I saw the car was idling rather violently. Also, I was having problems accelerating, the car just would not pick up.
I took a 10 minute break at a rest stop on the NJ turnpike, and when I got back into the car and started it, the idling was fine and it drove ok again(I did notice some white fumes coming outta the exhaust all of a sudden). Another hour or so into my trip, the idling and acceleration problems started again.
I plan on taking the car in today to get it looked at....can someone gimme a hint as to what the problem is?

Thanks!

S350L-E240

I can think of nothing besides fuel problems but i dont think that exists where you live, So it's best to just let them see for themselves,

DMI+RY

Take it to MB stealership ASAP, let them check error codes and run diagnostics.

mikeblah

I also have a 2000 430 and had the same thing happen. At first I thought it was the transmission.

It ended up being the Oxygen Sensor and the service manager told me they would need to order the part and it would take 3-6 days and cost me quite a bit ($600 seems to stick in my head, can't remember). He suggested that I come back, but also told me that it might correct itself if I wanted to take my chances. That worst case it would idle funny and I may get poor gas mileage..

My check engine light went out after a month or so and I never got it fixed. It hasn't shown any signs for over 2 years now.

Hope this helps...

Mike

naijaman

turns out my spark plugs needed to be replaced...just got it done and the car runs fine.
Thanks for the replies guys!

Brian_I.

That was just what I was going to suggest.

2H S5

Sorry for the 3 year bump since I have this problem.

Car won't accelerate. Actually, there's like a 10 sec delay in acceleration and tach starts to slingshot while car accelerates like a snail.
Check engine light is on too.

People were a little pissed behind me. I can hear them saying "WTF is wrong with this idiot in the benz. Doesn't he know how to drive?"

I can't drive it to the dealer b/c I don't know if it's going to die on the road or worse yet stall and have someone plow into me

I just had the spark plugs replaced I think early this year.

I also read that it's the oxygen sensor???

Anyone else have any idea?

whoover

If the tach is accurate (you hear the engine revving but you don't make headway) it sounds like the transmission. If the engine is not really revving, you're in luck. It's probably the accelerator pedal, which is a potentiometer that runs the drive-by-wire. It's a very common failure and is fairly cheap to fix. Beware that the dealer may try to tell you you need a MAF sensor "too," because they often change that first and then realize it's the pedal sender. (The codes thrown by the pedal failure tend to be ambiguous.)

Gondon

LOL

S500 Man

i had the same issues it was my MAF got it replaced and it fixed the issue.......

Gondon

lol, sell me your S500.

2H S5

Thank you for the detailed explanation whoover

Forgot to mention that I only have 30k on the car so it wouldn't that be premature for a transmission to go bad?

On first start up, it accelerates fine. Seems like right after a block or upon first braking, then it acts up. Engine does rev, and it revs to 4000rpm until the car moves extremely slow (under 5mph). AFter that it slowly catches up and the car accelerates normal.

It then repeats itself everytime I brake.

Regarding the accelerator pedal, could it be a coincidence because I did change out the pedals to the AMG one???? There's a pin that holds the accelerator that needs to slide out so you can remove the oem pedal?

Is this a component I have to replace (do you have the part number on this by the way?) or is it b/c I screwed up and the disturbed the "original position" of the gas pedal when I replaced the pedal?

On the lexus, a very common problem that goes out is the TPS (throttle position sensor)-car stalls, car doesn't move AT ALL when you hit the gas. Have to restart the car and it drives again.

Thanks for the input S500 man.

The funny thing is I was going to take the S in to get it tinted. At least, I could've hide behind the tinted window in embarrassment, but this was out in the open

whoover

It really sounds like the pedal assembly. The engine and transmission computers get contradictory information about pedal position and all hell breaks loose with the kind of symptoms you have. It's possible you messed something up, but more likely (I think) that the unit just failed. I think it's about $200 at the dealer. If it were me, I'd just pop in a new one. If it didn't fail, it will soon. The one in my 2001 S55 needed replacement in 2005 at about 40,000 miles. It's very frustrating for the people behind you because you're essentially starting in fifth gear.

2H S5

Thanks again whoover

It is a weird coincidence that after changing out to the amg pedals that this happened

I also want to correct myself that it vehicle starts to move at 2000rpm, not 4000 as stated earlier. Went to check it out this morning and drove it around the block.

Do you know the name of this part that I can order at the dealer and where it's located?

I want to try this first before calling a tow truck or maybe just drag myself there with a hazard on and covering my face

Here's what the pedal and area look like just so everyone knows. Either, here's a quick DIY to swap the AMG accelerator pedal.

whoover

It's the thing you're pointing out. It's just called the accelerator pedal module.

http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.asp...SGR=015&SGN=01

It's likely that your changing the pedal pad caused it to fail because it was getting ready to fail anyway. Your manipulations probably just caused the pedal to move a little further in one direction or the other than it did in normal use. That could have been all it took to cause it to give up the ghost. If this were the case, I assure you it would have failed by itself soon.

These are common failure items on early W220s. Your dealer's parts guy will probably know the part number by heart.

2H S5

I called the local dealership and told them the part #.
Cost is $200 so I'll stop by and pick it up. If by chance that this isn't it, it's returnable anyways.