Hi I went ahead and bought some Gunk degreaser and sprayed the engine with it so that when I do start doing some work on it I can minimize how dirty I get. Little did I know that after spraying the engine with the hose that the next day the car wouldn't drive the same. The car was completely cold when I sprayed the gunk and washed it with the pressure hose and I ran it right after the wash was over.... but it now runs without any real power and it seems that maybe it is firing on 4 out of 5 cylinders?? Any suggestions. It is possible that a little water might have entered the spout on the air cleaner. I drove the hell out of it today as I had a lot errands to run...
Please Please Please. I'd appreciate any help at all.



Thanks


Mannyt

Here's my WAG: Is it possible the pressure washer could have knocked out one of the boost lines to the ALDA at the overboost protection valve at the firewall? I could imagine water hitting the line hard enough to pull it out...

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'81 300TD Wagon 355k (Miss Diesel)
'83 300SD 180k
'84 500SEL 190k (Parting it out)

whoa, laymans language please. I'm new at this. this my first mercedes. What is the the ALDA and the overboost protection valve?

thanks

manny

You have a clear (well, sort of... milky amber colored) plastic line going from the back of the passenger side of the engine to a small silver cylinder (the overboost protection valve) on the driver's side of the firewall. A second clear plastic line comes from there and runs to this little square gizmo on top of the injection pump (the ALDA).

Here's a picture of the driver's side of the engine:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/attachment.php?postid=585565

The square thing under the black vacuum line in the bottom left is the ALDA. The milky amber colored line coming from it goes up and to the right; you can kind of see the overboost protection valve poking up behind the brake stuff there.

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'81 300TD Wagon 355k (Miss Diesel)
'83 300SD 180k
'84 500SEL 190k (Parting it out)

ok thanks again. I'll have a look first thing tomorrow and hopefully that will do it. I'm also going take off the banjo fitting at the end of intake manifold and clean it and the hose. Perhaps this will improve power as well.

Bahahaha!!
Sorry to hear mannyt, the exact same thing happened to me as well when I washed the engine. After the wash, I rinsed everything down and took it out for a spin. There was severe loss of power, almost as if the turbo was no longer worknig properly. I drove the car that day with the power loss for a good 80 miles and the darned thing fixed itself, which leads me to believe water got somewhere it shouldn't have (boost sensor, etc.).

I'd say, if nothing else is wrong with your car, drive it around for a couple of days and let things get hot and dry. You can always troubleshoot if this doesn't work.

Thanks Ler. I think you may be right. I did all of the above. All hoses and wires seem to be attached. I cleaned the banjo bolt fitting and hose. etc but still drives like the turbo isn't working or something like that, like you said severe loss of power. I have been driving it like that since yesterday. I'll give it another day or two and see if it fixes itself.....

Is there anything I can buy on the market that I can add into the fuel tank perhaps that could clear up the problem with boost sensor etc???

Nothing you add to the fuel will help the boost sensor, which is in the air stream, not fuel. It could be the water shorted out the overboost switch and it's triggered now, which means the car takes off OK, but is a dog above ~2500 RPM. It should dry out and return to normal in a couple days if that's the case. Could be a plugged overboost switchover valve too, but washing the engine shouldn't cause that. If the car is a dog off the line, you'll want to adjust the ALDA to get some more power - use the "Search" button and you'll learn all sorts of things on this forum!

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Dave
Boise, ID
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