Hey Guys. First some important information about the car and symptoms:

1) I bough the car sight unseen a month ago - it has 266,000km.
2) I was told by the salesman at least one exhaust manifold was bad / "he" said he could hear it hiss under WOT.
3) I replaced the IC pump yesterday for a new 010 Bosh. I found that it already had a 010 pump installed which seemed to work fine.
4) I put new air filters and changed the engine oil and filter.
5) I still need to change the trany oil, filter and pan gasket, change the spark plugs and also change the valve cover gasket as I seem to have a minor oil leak on the upper left portion of the engine - tbc.

Now I was in a rush but I first drove the car tonight for 5 minutes (wet roads). Under normal driving, the car seems to work just as expected. I filled her up with 91 octane, and on the way back, I punched it: the car picked up good and immediately failed, like I hit a rev limiter or something. I continued driving normally for a little bit than tried WOT again, car bogged down heavily. Didn't wanted to rev at all and no power, engine felt rough as hell. Then back to normal as soon as you let off the gaz.

I'll leave this here, if any of you want to comment.

From reading all the threads I could find, couple things were mentioned that could be the culprit:

-Failed fuel pump/connectors/or filter
-MAF
-Throttle pos. sensor
-Throttle body

EDIT: One more thing to mention, no CEL came on after the power loss happened a couple times. Couple more things that I started worrying about after the drive: incorrect SC adjustment (gap), or failed belt tensionner (or old belt that needs replacement).

EDIT #2: I can manually keep the car in lower gears and bring the RPM up, but as soon as I punch it, it still fails

 

Hey mate. Since its wet are you getting traction control? It applies brakes to the spinning wheel and cuts fuel and timing!

Do you have android device? You need a ELM327 ob2 bluetooth device off ebay so we can look at some stats to help you.

 

That's the first thing I though of while driving it last night. But it didn't feel like a rev limited, it was pretty violent and shaky, a rev limiter is usually way smoother. Plus, the power failed while there was still traction, but it's worth going out again this morning to make sure, it's 6:30am now and I'm heading to the garage to check the SC/clutch gap and belt to be sure... Then I'll go for a quick drive and report back.

1) Could a failed tensioner or worn belt produce this?
2) If the it's related to a bad fuel pump or filter, wouldn't the car had any symptoms under normal driving or when punching it while in neutral? I can do both without any issues. (rev to about 4k but smooth)

Finally, I do have an OBD2 bluetooth device but I found it pretty useless, do you have a good free or cheap app for iphone or Android? I also have a brand new Foxwell NT640 reader/scanner/programmer which can do live data - I can probably find a way to record and post back the results, let me know what you need.

 

If its not wet try driving eithout traction control on. Be careful though! I dont see why supercharger belt or tensioner should matter unless its slipping really erratocally as the car records boost and reacts accordingly. If your underboosting itd just do fuel and timing fir that reading..fuel pump may be a good candidate is it spluttering when u having probs?

 

It seems to be sputtering when it happens, I'll try to get a video this morning. Good suggestion on the TC OFF, I'll try that

 

Check what your air intake temps are also what are your long term fuel trims? Check what ur boost is doing. Is the car stock? Torque app is free and good fir logging

 

Took a couple pictures and a video - let me know what you think on these.

Video link

 

That tensioner bearing sounds buggered. Id do the entire tensioner assembly if I was you at those kms... Supercharger pulley looked fine to me, double idler didnt sound great..probs worth replacing those two too.

Did you run the car without ESP?

fuel rail shouls be 80~ psi if u have a gauge that fits the test valve on the rail.

 

Took the car out for 10 minutes, same symptoms this morning, but this time a CEL came ON. Unfortunately, I had to drop the car off for provincial inspection but I got the CEL codes, here they are. Could it be as stupid as bad spark plugs? Or coils?

 

Ah great, yeah id replace all the plugs, clear codes and test. If still occuring move the coil packs to different cylinders hoping the misfire follows the packs, if it does, replace . If the misfire stays at the original cyclinder, Id resistance test the wires with a volt meter, if they're fine it must be the injectors!

 

Also could do visual inspection of those cylinders to ensure nothing is loose. Could be related to this hissing noise under wot, perhaps the plugs are loose who knows. Heres the cylinder layout for m113 engine..

 

Thanks for the inf - I'll try that.

And no, I didn't try the car with ESP off, I will in a couple hours after the prov. inspection... But I fear it won't change anything, it definately feels like a misfire the more I think of it and the scanned codes kind of confirms it.

ps. Arrow is pointing FW I assume on the M113 layout?

 

Yeah!

 

Video of the power loss and sputtering + CEL coming ON while going uphill

 

I'd start with the fuel pump. It's a maintenance item at 60k miles.

 

Quick update, which turned out to be quite long so bear with me! Much has happen since last week.

I removed both valve covers, replaced the gaskets, I installed my headers, replaced the plugs (damn some of those were stuck in there pretty good), visually inspected all the coils and wires for defects and cleaned them... and I also replaced both engine mounts.

Unfortunately, I picked the car up from the exhaust shop at 5pm and I still have the power loss and bugging down when I push the car past 3/4 throttle I'd say... It does the same thing, feels like 2 or 3 cylinders just shut off for a moment. Now even at low rpm it still feels sluggish, like it can't recover. CEL came ON again, haven't had a chance to check the codes but will do tomorrow am and report back.

I don't know why but since the car runs great upon start and at low to mid RPMs, I suspect fuel starvation - which is possibly due to a faulty pump/sender unit/filter, or bad injector(s). My question is: Could a bad pump cause misfire and a CEL code for being starved of fuel?

I haven't touched the fuel tank, pump and filter... so I fear they might be long overdue... The good news is, I called the Mercedes dealer in Quebec about the warranty extension, (thinking I'd be turned down), and after checking my VIN, my car is eligible! Quite happy about that, so as soon as that snow clears up, I'll head to Quebec to do that whole thank swap. Side note, any of you know if they just replace the whole thing WITH the pump and sending unit?

 

Take a picture of your fuel tank lids for us, they';re under your rear seats and some sound proofing blanket stuff. I reckon you should just poor some petrol onto the lids before you go in so they definitely replace the fuel sender and pump. Are you getting the same cylinder misfire codes? If so move the coil pack and wires to the other side and see if the misfire code moves with it. If fuel pump was failing I'd expect random misfires or #8 to be *******g out coz thats the 'problem' cylinder on these engines.

 

I'm in southern ontario and have looked into the recall via buffalo area as my car is originally a US car. I'm surprised about Quebec honoring the US recall. Which dealer is it? I may change my plans and pickup a whack of beer while I'm up there

 

If you take a look about 5 or 6 post up, I posted a picture of the codes I pulled, and one of them was Random/multiple missfire. If I only got cyl 3 and 5 missfire, I would just replace both of these coils and try again, but that random code has me scratching my head a little... this is why I suspect fuel starvation.

Good point on putting gaz above the sender unit and pump before getting to the dealership. Might help.

 

I am leaning towards fuel starvation as well. From what I understand, pressure should be at 80 psi. Two pumps in the e55 and while not exactly prone to fail it does happen from time to time. Based on what you are describing, I wouldn't be surprised if one pump is on its last legs or already dead.

 

Good point.

Just read the codes, here's what I got - and a couple pics of the tank seals under the rear seat. No sign of fuel there, just a very light smell when very close with your nose.

 

Remove the lids and look. The tank seal rings are under the covers.

 

Well what do you know, miracles do happen...

Since I got a Cyl 3 misfire code, I decided to swap coil #3 with coil #1 this morning to see if the code would follow the coil, or stay on Cyl #3... While I moved the coil, I had to use the longer plug wire from cyl #3 to install in the #1 position, so I pulled on it and it easily came out, like if it was held in place only by the rubber booth... It happened in an instant but I fear that was an issue, the plug somehow wasn't properly seated in the coi pack. Long story short, I swapped the coils anyway and used the proper length wires... then went for a test drive.

For the first time since I took delivery of the car, it pulled like a rocket! I gave it a pretty good shakedown and it drove beautifully, did everything I asked from it and then some.

 

Glad to hear it mate! Bet that first taste of power felt goood.

 

This is what you are looking for.... or hoping not to look for maybe.