Yes that was one of the first things we changed. The car is at the mechanic now - I'll let everyone know if they fixed it. The place I took it to is the Bedminster Texaco - now Shell and they pretty much can fix anything. They deal with alot of older model cars - although they couldn't find the problem when I first took it there, but since most of the folks in Bedminster are "old money" - they do alot of work on older model mercedes.

The problem is complex and I would think that MB dealer or a MB only mechanic would be ideally suited to deal with it. Plus, MB dealer has parts that they can replace and check that a generic mechanic shop no matter how good they are, cannot do. But good-luck anyway

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Saumil S. Patel

Thanks Saumil - unfortunately Millenium Mercedes here in Bridgewater would not work on the car because it was to old and most of the parts they said would take weeks to order. Morristown Mercedes was awesome they said that they would take it but because of the year again it would be awhile for parts and that for the cost per hour it probably wouldn't be worth it. They did recommend me to a gentleman that used to work at their shop for 22 years that had actually opened his own shop in Dover or Rockaway, NJ who only worked on the older mercedes, but that was just to far for me. Bedminster Texaco has a large clientele that own the older mercedes so I trust them totally. They can be a bit pricey, but if you tell them what other shops charge for the same procedure they usually come down on price.

Lindasue, MB dealers can normally get genuine MB parts overnight ... if they can't then an independent won't be able to either. I'd say they were trying to avoid your business because they lack qualified techs who know how to service the older models. Even if the MB dealer had to wait for parts it's not costing you money ... they don't start a meter and bill for the elapsed time the car is there ... lame excuse.

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Fred Hoelzle

In my experience, the Stealership tends to turn up its nose at our old cars.

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2012 E350
2006 Callaway SC560

Wow !! We are lucky here in Houston, Star Motors is a great dealership. And whenever I need parts (for 87 260E), they have it in stock and if not they order them for me and will come the next day. Not only that, if I have some questions, I can right away ask a mechanic in their shop. But as you all said, they may not have too many mechanics left to fix mechanical fuel injection systems where the diagnosis cannot be made by hooking up a computer. Some dealership may have none. We also have good non-dealer mechanics that specialize in MB only like C&J.

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Saumil S. Patel

Amen to that!

Well the mechanic called back and of course reconfirmed what I had written on my list of replacements and what we thought was the problem and they reconfirmed that they also THINK it is the CPS - they also said that the OVP had loose joints inside and was no good so they replaced that (that's the 3rd one). They did make a comment which keeps me praying this is the problem - is that they will replace the CPS and run it and hopefully that will be the problem. Pray for me!!!!! They were very fair in pricing as well since I quoted the Mercedes dealer as well as one other shop on all parts that were replaced. For the total job labor, new OVP, new CPS - $549.00 - which is cheap in this area. Parts alone is 1/2 that. I could have probably saved myself at least $200 if I had took it to them the first time - although they may have not been so honest if I hadn't of prepared my list. Tomorrow after I drive away I'll reconfirm that it is fixed. Thanks to everyone's input.

What is CPS ? Once again, you have entered the replacement cycle without an exact diagnosis. But I guess you do not have much of a choice with MB dealers refusing to deal with the car.

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Saumil S. Patel

As far as I am concerned this is an exact diagnosis considering the chain of command in no spark. My brother checked and there was no spark coming into the cap, but spark was coming out - which means you have to trace the fault backwards from the cap. Coil sends spark to cap which we had checked and was fine. CPS sends spark to coil (brother didn't have time to check). Mechanic jiggled wires that lead from CPS to coil and car would short out. Can't get a better diagnosis than that. I believe they choose their words carefully to cover themselves just in case it starts acting up again. My brother also jiggled the wires in that vicinity and felt it was the CPS as well or the ECU. If you note most of the folks on these threads about this intermittent stopping thing have taken their vehicles as well to very reliable and competent mechanics and have had a hit or miss in getting it fixed. Intermittent problems are very hard to solve even when you get the car to stop and stall since you have to do it so many times to track down the culprit. I'm confident that they have solved the problem. CPS is Crankshaft Position Sensor.

Definitely could be CPS if the coil is fine and there is no spark.

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Saumil S. Patel

hi, just for curiosity's sake, where is the temperator
sensor located on yoru 260E?

The one I replaced to fix my intermittent stalling problem is the fuel injection temperature sensor. It is the last one on the engine, the one closest to the windshield. You can actually test this objectively, I only tested it subjectively. I pulled the wires out when the car was warm and nothing happened. I had expected some glitch in the RPMs, so I replaced it. And the problem was gone.
It is also called coolant temperature sensor. The resistance values should be about 2.5 to 3K at 20 deg-C and about 250 to 300 ohms at 80 deg-C. I am not absolutely positive about the exact numbers but the change should be approx a factor of 8 to 10 when car temp goes from 20 deg to 80 deg-C.

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Saumil S. Patel

I was having problems with my '88 260e stalling intermittently, mostly at idle or when coasting to a stop. The problem turned out to be the airflow sensor pot. It is a small black rectangle on the front of the airflow sensor with two wires that senses the airflow plate position. In time, the electrical trace wears out and causes a hiccup to the ecu that confuses it enough to kill the engine.

The dealer will tell you the entire airflow sensor must be replaced but the exact bosch pot can be purchased separately for about $80 from olyparts.com. Replacment is very touchy and I think it is covered pretty well in some previous posts.

I'm not saying for sure this is your problem but with the miles on the car and the symptoms, it's worth checking into.

If the CPS is a culprit to most older benz starting/running problems, how does it go bad? Age? Heat? I realize a 20 yr old car things need to get changed already.