1998 C230 Questions - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

DieselPaul · #1 11-10-2010, 01:48 PM

A friend of mine has a 1998 C230 with 170k miles on it. It idles really rough and is kind of jumpy under acceleration. It throws a check engine code for low idle speed and for the MAF sensor. Is it common on these cars for the MAF to go bad? I don't want to have him throw money at a MAF just because he can.

Also, the car has 3 prong spark plugs in it, they didn't look terribly worn, but if they are wrong, they probably aren't helping.

mpolli · #2 11-10-2010, 02:33 PM

Yes. MAF's go bad in every car that has one. Intervals vary.

OEM plugs have three ground electrodes. When mine idled rough I changed the plugs. But they had nearly 100K mi on them.

If you post the exact codes then you will get better answers probably.

Will_w202 · #3 11-10-2010, 04:07 PM

Be sure and remove the plastic intake tubing and airbox if you change it, clean out the years of leaves, bugs and debris, install a new air filter, all before you pop in the new MAF. The MAFs do fail eventually regardless, but you'd be a amazed what a spec of errant dust does to hot film

DieselPaul · #4 12-15-2010, 04:59 PM

I finally got the car back in my garage to scan the codes again,

My scanner isn't a Mercedes scanner, so it only knows a few of the code definitions:

P0100 - MAF/VSF Ckt Malf
P0001 - see service manual
P0507 - idle control sys rpm too high
P1519 - see service manual

I googled and found "CODE P1519 CAMSHAFT TIMING RIGHT CYLINDER BANK SIGNAL RANGE PERFORMANCE." but this is an inline 4, there is no right bank. Googling P0001 says its a "generic" code.

The car idles poorly, but is drivable. I think it probably needs a MAF, do these codes support that?

DieselPaul · #5 12-17-2010, 12:39 PM

Bump?

Gilly · #6 12-17-2010, 04:46 PM

With a bad MAF sensor you'd normally be looking at a code for fuel trim adaptation at limits, either rich or lean. What you have says it's a circuit malfunction, which is an odd one, as if someone disconnected the MAF whith the engine running. I don't know what to think, since it runs weird but no misfire codes. Usually the 111 is a realy dependable engine. Wondering about the basic maintenance, if it's all up to snuff, and about the weird plugs. This shouldn't have any funky 3 electrode plugs in it.