I was driving and the engine kept shaking at idle at stop signs and red lights. As I headed home it got worse, but at high rpm's the car was going fine. Finally when I got home it got really bad and just turned off by itself. It sputtered and the engine was making some sounds it was not supposed to me making. Anyone know what's going on with my car ?

Have the fuel filters been replaced annually? That might be a suspect since it was running fine in the upper RMPs. BTW TxBill, the same thing happened on our 240d with the fuel gauge (on a very cold morning out on the interstate). Since that happened, I always keep 2 gallons of #2 in the trunk .... 1 gallon to prime the pump, 1 gallon to find a service station :).

My fuel gauge does the same thing. It is very accurate until it gets down below 1/2, and you cannot trust it below 1/4. My wife has run it dry twice and it still shows 1/4 tank on the guage. Funny thing is, the idiot light only comes on when it is completely dry! :(

I guess I am too cheap and lazy to fix the sending unit and idiot light. I simply keep topping off the tank when it gets below 1/2. Some day I'll get it fixed, but it is not on the top of my 'to-do' list right now.

SV,
I hope this is your problem.... it is the simplest to fix!

Is it possible the idle is somehow too low?

Thanks for the replies. I don't think it's the fuel because I have filled up recently and when the engine turned off a while later I tried turning it back on again and it worked, but then after a couple of more minutes while leaving it at idle it started shaking and turned off. It might be the fuel filters. When it first happened while I was heading home the car felt very slugish at 1,000-2,000 RPM like the fuel wasen't reaching the cylinders as it should have been and when it turned off, it seemed like it ran out of gas. And i'm sure I put diesel in not gas.

yeah.