300E Sputtering & Stalling
 

Hello All,

I just searched the archives and found some possible answers to the problem, but would like some input from those who know.

The 91 300e belongs to a friend of mine.. a nice 70 year old man. It had been impossible to crank at times. I told him about the Over Voltage Relay and he should mention this to the dealer in Raleigh (Leith) if it happens again. Well, it's happened again and again.

It wouldn't start.. dealer charged $200 and said it was fixed, a few weeks later same thing happened. Took to dealer, he replaced the coil ($400) and my friend left. Car died at stoplight.. this time sputtered and died, would not crank. (It seems things are getting worse) Leith has had it for 18 days now, he hasn't heard from them and he asked me to see if anyone could advance ideas as to why it's now sputtering and dying, whereas before it just wouldn't crank.

I have found in my search that someone mentioned Renassiance (sp) in Raleigh does good work and I will tell him about that. My friend is in Rocky Mount, NC so if anyone knows of good MB mechanics in that area, please let me know. But if anyone can give me some info for him to tell Leith as where to look or what to do, (or maybe "where to go"?) it will be much appreciated.

Thanks

By "impossible to crank" means that the starter motor won't work, I'd take a good look at the basic wiring from the battery to both the hot side and especially the ground run.

Make sure your friends purchases a new OVP! You can even get it here on this website. Good luck..

Thanks Guys! I'll pass on the information to Bill. I guess the bad thing is that I'm not there in person to go "down the list" with the mechanics. But I'll send Bill this info and see if it helps with the dealership. thanks again!

I recently had the same problem with our '90 300E - sputtering and stalling. My problem turned out to be a dead alternator. The engine was running the battery down to nothing. The tough part was that there was no warning light, and the alternator even tested good (off the car on a test bench)! I decided to replace it anyway since there weren't too many other possibilities. That did it. It's been fine for 6+ months now.

I hope this helps...

Hmmmm.. I seriously hadn't really thought about the alternator.. thanks Dennis.. I'll pass that along also. Maybe it is something just that simple :confused: