Intermittent dead skip.. What are possible causes???? 300SEL

[jay3000]

After driving this car for the first time in a while, I noticed an intermittent DEAD skip.. Most noticable at idle, and when taking off.. Sometimes, however, the car will idle, and run perfectly. I was not able to dulicate the problem in the garage as it does not happen very often..

I have not yet done anything to try to corrcet this problem, but I'm searching for possible causes..

My gut feeling is that a plug wire is going bad.. If they weren't so expensive, I would just stick a set on there..

In the last 5K miles, Ive relaced the cap, rotor, and plugs..

Is there anything else besides what I've mentioned, that could possibly cause a skip??? I really want get this car running right.. I'm getting close...

Thanks,
Jay

[sbourg]

First I would check the cap and rotor for obvious problems. If it is a plug or wire, though, a scope will often show a consistent problem even if the noticeable misfire is occasional.

Steve

[sunil190e-1.8]

what sort of miles has your car cdone so far.

if it has high miles,then spark plug wires are the most likely cause for your skip.

my car had done 115,000 miles when a misfire(skip) developed.

it was intermittent,not reproduceable in the garage,and i like yourself had replaced the plugs,distributor cap,and rotor with no joy.

however,on replacing the spark wires for £30(us$45) for my 4 cylinder car,the skip disappeared.

you could do the night time test to check youer spark plug wires.

switch on your engine and let it idle,this should be done in the dark, and if you then open your hood and look into the engine bay,you may be able to see arcing from the spark plug wires if they are faulty.

by the way, fastlane may be able to supply the wires made by bosch which will be cheaper than going to the dealer.

good luck.

[jay3000]

I'm gonna try a set of wires.. These are probably the original with 147K , and 14 years on them.. I wrestled them around a lot getting the old plugs out too, to say the least...That's my "gut " feeling anyway..
I can re-produce the problem by pulling a plug wire off..

[sunil190e-1.8]

jay,

that would be your best bet.

keep us posted on your progress.


looked up fastlane-your bosch wire set is us$105.