Well, my dad took his car to the carwash yesterday. It was the same wash that he always goes to, the one that i worked at for 6 months. On his way home, the engine sputtered and died. He said that before it died, it did not want to accelerate. When i got to him and the car, i checked the engine compartment for moisture to see if the ecu got wet. It did not, as everything was bone dry. The car would start up, rev to 800 rps, and then die. One time it started up and had an extremely rocky idle, and when placed in neutral, the gas pedal had no effect. What could the problem be? Im sure we will find out this week as it got towed to the shop, however, i just wanted to see what you guys thought.

Later,
Patrick

 

A word on commercial car wash for slk owners:

According to my bud at MB corporate, the tech from MB do not recommend slk owners to go thru a car wash due to the high pressure spray that may tear the seal and cause leakage as the car ages. I was also advised not to spray strong water directly to the seal area. I dunno whether this is completely true or not but I just want everyone to be aware.

 

Check all the hoses and check the oil filler cap and the oil dipstick.

NP

 

Other than the ECU, there are still LOTS of things you can get water into and cause problems.

You didn't say whether your father washed the engine compartment, but it's not a good idea. I used a pressure washer on the engine in my former '99 SLK and fried the heater control valve.

 

sounds to me like the potentiometer that is on the gas pedal took a crap. in other words the little doohickey thing that tells the ecu wheter or not you have your foot in to it went bad and now the ecu doesnt know how to tell the engine to run.

 

Check the cable to and from the air mass sensor (sits between air filter and intake mainfold). If cables are ok, then either dirty (you can check and do the cleaning yourself although delicate procedure, use cotton swap with a bit of alcohol) and simply "kaputt". Could be of course something else but this is my best guess.

 

Check out the stick shifter area. I once spilled just a small amount of water in this thing, and it burnt out some control board which is strangly under that shifter.
It cost me $750 to replace it. It is a known issue.
Mine had the same symptoms

 

sorry for being slow to get back...
it ended up that the gasoline that he put in was more than half water. Of course, Amoco said that they ran out of gas and bought some from Sonoco. I believe it. It ended up only being from the premium pump.