Hello everybody.......I thought I'd ask here first to get some opinions from people that I'm sure forgot more about Mercedes than I'll probably ever know.

I have an 89 300E that I've owned for about 3 months. Bought it with 168k and now I'm up to 180k. Here is a strange little quirk that just came up.........since I bought the car, when the "CHECK ENGINE" light came on, I get out of the car and walk over to the right marker light and give it a smack so the marker light pops on and then there is no more "CHECK ENGINE" light.

NOW, when I do my routine with the marker light, the "Check Engine" light goes off, and about 3 minutes later comes on and just stares at me for the duration of my trip. Marker light is still on and all other bulbs are intact.

Also as of late, when she's warmed up and been driven for a little while, trying to crank her up again usually entails 2 or 3 false starts, and then she'll turn over sometimes dying out on me when I go up the road a bit. After she dies out, she'll restart no problem and then everything is fine from then on.....

If this has happened to anybody, any thoughts and suggestions would be graciously accepted.