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#1
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380SL Sputters & losses power. Restart solves problem.
Hi All:
Thanks in advance to any help with this oddball problem. I recently bought an 83 380SL. It has the double roller conversion and 88,000 miles. Cherry car... except: After about 45 minutes of highway driving, it begins to sputter and jerk (kinda' lunges) and lose power - acts like a fuel starvation problem. It happens sooner if the car has been "pushed" like driving on hilly terrain. It also happened more frequently and sooner these past few days as the temps have risen in the northeast leading me to believe I'm in for a lousy summer driving experience. Thing is... if I pull over, stop the engine and restart, it all goes away... almost like something is "resetting". Everything goes back to normal only to return again a while later. Everything else is normal and the car drives as new otherwise. I alternate adding a can of Ventil Sauber and Jectron once a month. Within the last 3,000 miles, the tank has been dropped, flushed and cleaned, it has new fuel filters, air filters, wires, distributor cap, and brand new injectors. Any ideas? Thanks! |
#2
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Gas Cap?
Try driving it with the gas cap loose or off. If the tank vent is plugged you will get a vacuum build up in the tank that the fuel pump can not overcome.
If that cures the problem look for a blockage in the vent system. |
#3
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I thought of that and tried it - - nothing.
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#4
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Here's an interesting discovery in my problem: The stalling, sputtering no power problem completely disappears when I fill up the tank. As long as the tank is more than 1/4 full, I'm OK - runs like a dream. At about 1/4 it starts happenning infrequently but then as the gas level in the tank continues to drop, it gets really bad.
Now I know there is supposed to be a certain amount of tank vacuum produced by these MB closed systems. Every other car I have ever owned makes a "whoosh" sound when I open the gas cap - this car - nothing at all. When I got it, it had a generic vented gas cap. Now since I know MB isn't vented, I replaced it with the correct non-vented MB cap. Did I make the problem worse by doing that? Also, assuming this tank vacuum / gas level clue is meaningful, what does this tell me? Have I stumbled upon something here or is this ongoing intermittent fuel starvation issue finally driven me crazy? |
#5
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I've now confirmed that the fuel level is a direct clue on the problem. Three times since my last post I got the problem to start and become chronic as the gas ran down only to disappear when I re-filled the tank. I also tried using the old vented gas cap and using no cap at all and neither one had any effect. And no matter what the situation or circumstances, I NEVER hear a sound when I remove the gas cap.
It's difficult for me to explain this as an ignition problem anymore. I'm also not sure how the FPR impacts this anymore either, but I'd like to make sure by getting the problem to manifest itself and then jumpering the relay. What pins do I jumper to test the FPR once and for all? Assuming the FPR checks out OK and that the FP and filter are new, where do we go? FP check valve, FT vent valve, accumulator, screen, damper, warmup (control pressure) regulator, fuel distibutor? If this weren't such a PIA, I might actually be fun! Thank you all for your excellent suggestions, time, and interest in my problem. Ray |
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