hi-

i'm still a little anxious over this, but, after some expenditure of $$ to my mechanic, i think things may be ok, but i'm not 100% sure. thought i'd post this up here to you all to see if there are any further thoughts. warning- nightmarish tale ahead involving clueless owner and a bunch of idiots.

i just bought a '99 e300 (140,000 miles- mostly highway) from the east coast, and had it shipped out here to l.a. when the seller dropped the car off to the shippers, the car was working fine. sometime along the route, the car stopped starting. when i went to the hub to pick it up and couldn't start it, someone there had the brilliant idea of spraying some starter fluid- which i assume was ether- into the intake. i thought it was a bad idea, but these guys assured me that they do it all the time to cars and diesel trucks. they had already demonstrated their utter lack of knowledge of diesels by repeatedly turning the ignition all the way on without waiting for the glow plugs, even after i had explained it to them, so i should have stopped them in their tracks, but, regrettably, i allowed them to continue.

well, they started spraying- they probably went for almost a minute filling the intake with that stuff. nothing happened other than the battery losing its charge and the engine shaking the whole car and crying out for us to stop. the whole time, i was thinking this isn't right and finally told them to stop.

the car got flatbedded to my mechanic- he knows mercedes diesels well, is honest and fair with what he charges me. intake sensor- dead. glow plug relay needed to be replaced which might have been the cause of the car not starting in the first place. they said the car was a little noisier than normal, but a good long blowout on the freeway would solve that.

anyhow- i've been driving it a couple of days and i notice these 2 subtle things. whenever i'm at 1200-1500 rpms there is a slight low pitched whine- comes from the engine. and at 55-60 mph, i can feel some vibration in the wheel, which disappears once i kick it up a notch. it does a smooth 80 mph. and it does, in general, sound better now.

just wanted to relay this nightmarish tale as a warning to others and also post up these 2 issues i've noticed- could they possibly be a result of this ether boneheadedness? they are both pretty subtle, but i still just have this constant low level anxiety that i've really messed up a really awesome car. i read some of the threads on ether up here, so i know a bit about it now. ugggh.

i'm going back to my mechanic in a few days, will report back what he says. thanks in advance to any other ideas you guys are willing to float my way.