So my car has started running really REALLY rough lately. I didn't notice it right away though because I don't usually go WOT unless I have a good reason too; so I happened to find out during a little highway foreplay. There was a new SL65 coming up the freeway (beautiful car BTW!!) and I decided to give him a little run, well he literally walked me like I was standing still. Now I know he's supposed to be faster than me, but not THAT much faster. I didn't notice it at the time of the run because I was trying to focus on the road, but afterward, I was so dumbfounded by the results of the run I decided to look for some answers. I went off to a lonely wide open road and floored it, and as soon as my car hit 5k RPM's, it started to sputter and buck and it would not accelerate anymore. It was awful, I mean... Not only would it not go faster, but it wouldn't even shift into the next gear because it couldn't climb any higher.

Well since then it has progressively gotten worse. It now breaks up anywhere above 4k RPM's. If I slip the transmission in Neutral while coasting down the highway, I can rev the engine to 6k and for the most part everything sounds and feels normal. When it first started breaking up I thought to myself that it MUST be a misfire. So I have spark plugs and wires on order and will be here next week. However, since it has gotten noticeably worse in such a short amount of time, I am starting to think that it may be another issue. Up until today there was no check engine light but after running REALLY bad today, the car did throw a CEL, so that's when I decided to check the codes.

I was searching around and noticed this thread by e55 baller:

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...under-wot.html

Since the beginning of my problems, my car had not been slipping as described in that thread... But it did happen once today. It wouldn't go passed 3k rpm and then it slipped and the RPM's shot up but the car wasn't accelerating. Have there been any developments on that issue e55 baller?


So to sum it up: Car running like total crap. Slippage has occurred. Spark plugs and wires en route. CEL codes:

P0300 - Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected
P0301 - Cylinder 1 Misfire Detected
P0302 - Cylinder 2 Misfire Detected
P0303 - Cylinder 3 Misfire Detected
P0304 - Cylinder 4 Misfire Detected
P0456 - Evaporative Emission Control System Leak Detected (very small leak)

I can hear and feel the supercharger still engaging, and if I baby the car, it will drive relatively fine. Idle is still smooth. Any idears?? Thanks for listening!

 

The E55 is still very new to me, but if this was another car I would say fuel injectors or ignition coil.

The car has 2 coils per cylinder. If one failed, its possible that at low RPMs the other is enough to hide the issue, but once you push it then two are required and you're seeing the symptoms.

How does it start when cold? Does the exhaust smell like gasoline?

 

I can't really notice any difference in exhaust smell however I do hear the exhaust pulses sounding different. I can definitely hear that there is a miss somewhere, even at idle, through the exhaust. This is what initially made me question the ignition system... Though I have a feeling that coils have a much higher price tag than plugs and wires, so I'll start small first.

The car has 52xxx miles on it, and I think the stock plugs and wires probably aren't in very good shape anyways, so hopefully I'm on the right track.

EDIT: updated first post to include description of trouble codes.

 

Sounds like a coil pack issue to me. I looked into replacing all my coil packs when I first got my car. I decided not to do it because there really is nothing wrong with them, and the price is rediculous, I believe it was upwards of $800 without labor. However, an ignition problem doesn't explain why the transmission would slip. Please keep us posted.

 

just thinking out loud. since all your misfires are from the same cylinder bank, could it be that you have an exhaust obstruction...as if your cats clogged or failed and are now severely impairing flow???

 

That would be the drivers side no?

 

Good call Chiromikey, I bet your right. Also, did you have anywork done to the car lately? I have seen a lot of 55's with damaged exhaust underneath due to it being so low. What I usually see is straight marks from the improper use of a lift.

The bank should be on the passenger side of the car. Or when looking at the engine the left side.

If it is a cat that collapsed then it will be under the emissions warranty which is good to 75k anyway.

Goodluck

 

While possible exhuast damage is worth looking into, something you can do right now and with little effort is remove the coils and look for cracks in the casing.

 

what does the freeze frame data say for conditions @ time of code?

 

How would I get this data?

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I would take a look here.......

 

I took my car back to the exhaust shop that did my headers this morning. The guy looked over the exhaust and checked for leaks and what-not. He said he doesn't see anything wrong with the cats, and since I don't know how to check it myself without pulling it off, I just have to take his word for it for now. I could take it back and ask him to cut off the cats and put new ones on, but CA has just recently changed their laws regarding catalytic converters and I'm gonna get raped big time.

Whatever this problem is, it's really bumming me out. It's getting to the point where the car is almost non-driveable. If I put more than 15% pedal into it, the car will just start to sputter and die.

 

Did he actually drop the exhaust and look at the cats inside?

 

Negative.

 

Then that's where I would start.

 

When I was picking up my car from its service visit two weeks ago I was talking to my buddy a MB master tech. He pointed out a 2003-2006 E55K in one of the bays. He told me that it had about 50K miles on it and was shocked how bad the plugs looked. It was setting off a bunch of misfire codes as well. They replaced the plugs and it was running fine afterward.

If it isn't the cats...maybe it is the plugs..

Tom

 

Plugs should be here tomorrow and I'll post up pics of the stockers once I remove them. Thanks for the help and advice everyone. If the plugs don't change a thing, I'll go back to the exhaust shop and ask the guy to bring down the exhaust and inspect the cats.

 

Has your car been in for the cat recall? they replaced mine under a recall, would have cost $4,100.00 to do out of warranty. By all means go to the dealer, the cats have a longer warranty than the car and yours should still be under warranty and or recall.

 

Is there any documentation on this cat recall??

The plugs arrived today, the wrong ones. I pulled out one plug on the pass side, and it was fouled up pretty bad. Though I suppose it could have been fouled from running poopy the last week or so. Wet and fouled. Smelled like fuel.

 

Mine was done 3/12/08 and many owners were getting recall letters around that time. The recall campaign number I have on my invoice is 2008010001.
Parts replaced, on my 2004 E 55 AMG, build date 3/13/04 were.
211 490 25 19 05
211 490 26 19 05
210 990 09 04
129 990 04 10
170 990 00 10
120 142 00 72
210 490 11 41
208 492 00 81
211 492 01 81
120 142 00 72

Here is a pic
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...paign-e55.html
You can use the Oxygen Sensor port to check back pressure easier than taking the exhaust off.

 

Thank you!


I guess I should also add something... I have a decent amount of custom exhaust work done. Custom headers, as well as the h-pipe right in front of the cats has been cut out and replaced with straight piping. Do you think they're going to laugh in my face when I take the car in??

 

Any luck?

 

Actually yes!

First let me thank everyone for their help and suggestions. It turned out that the catalytic converters were all FUBAR. I wasn't able to get it replaced under factory emissions warranty though, due to my custom headers

So I went back to the exhaust shop and asked him to do a back pressure test and the car failed miserably So out came the cats and the car ran immediately better. I'm in a rough spot with funds right now so I wasn't able to put new cats in. As of right now, the car is header >> x-pipe >> muffler and I personally think it sounds terrible; it's loud and raspy and yuck. One day I'll go back to him and have him throw in some high flow cats or some type of resonator.

Removal of the cats unfortunately didn't fix ALL of the cars issues though. It was still misfiring - though not nearly as bad - and throwing misfire codes. Well my new spark plugs and wires happened to come in today and after installing those the car runs great. Super smooth and no misfire in sight . The drivers side spark plugs were in decent shape, and all together weren't all that bad for 52,xxx miles. The passenger side was another story however. ALL 8 plugs were fouled up, and looked terrible. The ignition wires looked better than the plugs, but still not in great condition either.


After all these developments though, I have another question now. I have read on the forum that removing the cat will throw a CEL... What code does it bring up?? I have yet to have the CEL go on, and I am completely catless now.

Thanks again everyone for the help!!

 

Oh and I forgot to add. I replaced my stock wires with Magnecor wires. They were much cheaper than the stock replacements, and Magnecor makes a good quality product. I searched other manufacturers like Taylor and MSD and Accel, and I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that Magnecor actually made a product for MBZ's. It is part number 85240 and can be seen here in their catalog. The wires fit perfectly except for one tiny modification is needed... The boot end that fits on the ignition coil is ever so slightly too wide to fit both boots on the coil pack. There is a lip at the end of the boot that needs to be trimmed off and then they both fit just fine. I just took a razor and it trimmed quite quickly.

 

glad you got things taken care of. i'm sure the plugs probably would have looked fine if it wasn't for the cat failure.

how does the car feel now without any cats? did you lose a lot of low/mid range tq?