Couple 1996 E320 issues.
 

My '96 E320 has developed a couple annoying issues in the last few months.

1. It won't start in park. Well once in a while it will, but 90% of the time, I have to shift into neutral to start it.

2. The throttle is cutting out or dropping at part throttle. It happens right at the throttle position you use to maintain speed in town or on the freeway. Extremely annoying. It literally feels like the throttle blade just slams shut. You have to lift then re-apply the gas to continue. This will happen pretty rapidly, like every 5-10 seconds some times. Oddly, it never does it in the morning, only once everything is heat-soaked by the sun. The throttle servo harness was replaced about 3 1/2 years ago. It was doing pretty much the same thing before that as well. I'm not sure what all was replaced at that time.

If anyone can give me any advice on these issues, I'd be hugely grateful. Other than this, it's driving fantastic, especially for having 284,000 on it :thumbsup2:

Most likely the neutral safety switch on the trans!

That can cause the starting issue & cause the electronic accelerator to act funny as well.

Very interesting. I assumed the neutral safety switch had something to do with the starting issue, but never thought they could be related. Well, the issues did start about the same time, so here's hoping.

The EA computer (electronic accelerator) needs to know what gear the car is in to control the idle speed. And gets that from the neutral switch on the trans.

Just replaced the neutral switch. It fixed the problem of not starting in park. I took it for a drive on the freeway wand it started cutting out again like it has been, then stopped. Seems like it's very intermittent.

It seems to mostly happen right at the throttle position you use most for maintaining a normal speed. If you accelerate or decelerate, it runs fine. Possibly a worn throttle pedal position sensor?