Hi all,
My 93 300E 2.8 (M104) has 152k mi on it. It started running really roughly in the last 8-10 days -- hard starting, rough idle, coughing during acceleration. My mechanic, an independent who performed the 150k service several weeks ago, says there's no compression in No 4 and believes theres a burned valve. He estimates $1500 (minimum) to pull the head, have a look, replace the gasket and re-assemble and it could come up to $2600 for a full valve job.

Is this reasonable? Could the valve failure be legit? And what about the price? Everything I read in this forum indicates these engines never have valve problems. The car has been well cared for -- it has never used oil, except for when the head gasket was leaking (it was replaced by the dealer, as was the wiring harness at about 98k mi). Could this be the result of a bad tank of gas? My wife put a little Mobil in it, which we usually don't use -- but this sounds really far-fetched.

Comments?? Thanks in advance.

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Eric