Mysterious illness
 

Folks,

I have a 1985 190E 2.3 with over 300k miles on it. Suddenly yesterday as I was leaving Stanford, my car felt heavy as I tried to get the car into motion. (I have a 5-speed tranny). Upon starting the engine, I noticed a loud, deep throttle nose. And as I revved it, the nose got louder and the revving got tougher.

The timing doesn't feel like it's missing, but the idling is really rough. I've recently changed the fuel distributor, fuel injectors, fuel filter, spark plugs, air filter and water pump.

I left the car parked for about 5 hours and started it back up again. This time, the car really lagged on 1st gear. However, after driving on the freeway for about 40 minutes and coming to a stop sign, the car doesn't feel that heavy on first gear anymore, but still doesn't feel the same. Highway driving isn't as bad as starting on first gear. Having the car parked and revving it would result in this "heavy" feeling.

Does any of you Mercedes guru have any clues? The only thing I can think of is a sticky valve. Any suggestions would be great.


Vu

maybe it's not getting enough fuel. Check the eha current and see if it's rich or lean, very good way to see if something is up with fuel delivery, maybe the fuel pump can't supply the required amounts.

xp

Guys,

I was just wondering, how hard is it to adjust the timing on this car? I was reading a manual and it says to "turn the crankshaft using a socket on the pulley bolt until the timing marks on the vibration damper are accessible". Any of you know how to do this???

Thanks.
Vu

It makes me think of a failed chain tensioner. Has it ever been replaced?

Haasman

I am not sure on that. This car was handed down to me by my uncle, who always took it to the dealer for service. Now that you mentioned it, I can put the chain tensioner on the list of possible culprits. Thanks.

vu

To all,

To give you an update on the problem, I brought the car in and the air-fuel mixture was running a bit too rich. That was adjusted and it ran a little better. However, the vibration was still there. More inspection found that the engine mounts were shot. The driver's side was approx. 2-3 lower than the passenger's side.


Now that the car has new engine mounts, it drives like a dream! I cannot believe how much of a difference engine mounts can make. The mounts have fluids in them to help dampen the engine vibrations, so if you see any fluid leak on older MB, u might want to take a look at your engine mounts.



-vu