I've notice today after the engine has warmed up that the Economy meter was showing constant reading in the center of the gauge instead of to the left. This was also true while I was driving the car. I think this probably tells me that there's a vacuum leak somewhere near the manifold hoses. Can someone point out the most obvious locations prone for this problem on the 16V.

Idle was great, no surging etc. Got home tonigh and popped the hood and checked the vacuum hoses. here's what i've found:

1) Breakage on hose connector to main valve cover ventilation outlet. This was the 90 deg hose conn. marked 102 094 93 82.

2) Cracked line on secondary vent line from valve cover to ????
hose marked 102 094 94 82.

Questions:

1) I understand that hose 93 82 is some sort of crankcase ventilation which routes to the air fliter housing. Before reaching the housing, there is a y connection with a water hose connected. What's the use of the water line. Is it to heat up the cranck case vent line so it doesn't get sticky?

2) Hose 094 82 si interesting. Looks like one line from the valve cover connects to a valve with a black plastic adjustment screw and 2 hoses coming from injectors 1-2 from left and 3-4 from right. This device looks like a control valve of some sort. Any idea what this system actually does?

I have the hanes manual for the regular 190E and I find it doesn't help much when you have a 16V model. So i guess I better hurry and get a proper service CD manual for the 16V model from the parts shop.

Having being farmiliar with Honda's for the past 6 years (OBD-II), I find the Mercedes system rather interesting, seems very advance for a 16 year old car.

Btw, final q:

Does anyone know how to operate the stopwatch center button. I can't figure out it's function seems like a tachymeter of some sort. Left = start, center = split & ?????????, right = stop.

thank a whole bunch for any info.

alex

bump ..