1988 190e low power, erratic cruise, vac. in red
 

my gas mileage is good, around 27mpg. but very little power, the cruise swings 5/6 mph each way, a/c cuts off on the smallest hill, and the timing is not affected at idle by changing the trim resistor. the timing does advance but at idle vac is around 15 in. hg. i have disconnected the 4 vac lines one at a time and plugged them but vac. stays approx. 15 in. hg. carb cleaner spray around injectors and hoses has no affect. tested idle sw, air flow pot., eha current per previous threads all seems normal. new plugs, air filter, rotor and cap since problem noticed. no change in symptoms. cat. converter has been gone a long time.( not my idea) what am i missing??? thanks, charlie

Re: 1988 190e low power, erratic cruise, vac. in red
 

Did you solve this problem.? Please, Let me know How.

Thanks. Mario Farias
laprefar@cantv.net

No change yet. I messed with spark plug gap, and fuel mixture to no avail. I read on my CD about some models having a pre-catalytic converter. I plan to check that out since it acts like an ehaust block of some kind. It implied that if you had a major mixture problem, which I had and repaired, the pre-catalytic converter was the first to go. More later. Charlie

well, i disconnected the exhaust at the maniflod and nothing changed except the noise. i also checked the compression which is 11 t0 11.5 bars between all cylinders. now i am back to vacuum. i read a post by stevebfl about cleaning a port in the intake mainfold but it didn't seem to apply to my car. i'm still concerned about the erratic operation of the cruise control but can't find it. a search didn't help, parts search didn't show anything i could recognize. it must have a vacuum hose attached so i might have missed a leak there. also my car doesn't appear to have an egr valve so i am wondering if something in that area is clogged. my cd is very vague in these areas. any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks. charlie