2001 E430 barely starts
 

Gentlemen, I own a 2001 E430 that we dearly love. It is our road car to see our grandchild and has performed flawlessly. Until, the other day when I changed the air mass meter. The Benz house indicated that the cel was from an air mass meter code. We had just received the car back from a small accident and the light came on, thus the check and change. Upon changing this part myself, the car would start after the second try and ran perfectly, then it wouldn't start at all. When we could get it to start it died and when we could get running, it ran w/ a small rev. My mechanic removed the AMM connector and the rev smoothed out, upon replacing it, it returned.
Is this just a bad AMM or something different? The AMM was purchased on EBAY from a dealer w/ a very good reputation, whom I have pruchased from before. The part number matched, but I wonder if I did something installing the AMM, it seemed easy enough, or could i have received a bad unit.
Thank you for your input.
Steve Dale

The fuel system is adaptive, and if you got codes for the air mass..most likely the computer adapted to the BAD info it received from that sensor.

The car MUST be driven about 10 miles to re-adapt OR the adaption must be reset with a MB scanner.

Thank you for your input M.B Doc. Just a bit of clarification. We have driven the car well over 10 miles after the new AMM was installed. The failure to start and complete shutdown came after a week of driving.
If I need to do this adaptation, is that thru the Benz house and what am I looking at this procedure cost wise. Also, why should this happen with just the simple change of my AMM?
Thank you for your attention to my problem.
Steve Dale

Driving will always readapt.

If you are having issues after a nice drive at 50-60 mph, then the aam is most likely the problem!