I have a 1997 E-420, with 98,322 miles, the car is in excellent shape and was running fine until yesterday. I'm new at this so please bare with me. The day before yeaterday I'm cleaning my car, inside and out to include the engine compartment. I sprayed the engine off while the car was running, and also drove the car a few miles to dry the engine off. The following day I'm driving my car to work and notice a significant change in the idleing in the car. While driving it, the whole car shakes when I accelerate and idles very ruff when I'm at a complete stop. Last night I inspected all of my vacum hoses and found no problems. Is it possible that I damaged something electrical or something minor i'm over looking? Any comments would be helpful.

Thank you,

Robert of Miami

Check for water in the distributor cap--frequently happens from an old/missing seal. When the car gets hot, it vaporizes, condenses on the cap , shorts out, causing bad misfires etc..

I had the same thing happen once after an engine wash. Actually got a "check engine electronics" message along with it. A bunch of water had ended up in the cavities around the spark plugs. If you have a compressor I recommend blowing it out with that. The previous person responding to your post said something about a distributor. If your 97 E410 is the same as mine then it has a coil for each spark plug, I don't think that there is a distributor.