I hate it I hate it, E300 D dying engine temp above 80C, drive or idle
 

I guess I will have to bring the 97 E300D into my indy shop. It has been dying when the engine temp gets above 80C most times while in drive and idling. When it dies the ETS message comes on in the info center then the CEL comes on. It appears to only die when in drive and above the stated temperature; it will die while driving down the road too. Sometimes while driving down the road it will just die momentarily. I presume it is purely electrical since I have already replaced the K40 relay and fuel shut off valve. I have an appointment for next Tuesday while I am out of town and do not need a car so any ideas will be looked into.

Shoe,

Most guys here know that feeling all too well. We hate it when we have to bring the car to the dealer for work. Heck I even hate it when I have to get an alignment or wheel balancing work done (I am considering buying my own wheel balancer at Harbor Freight for $60) just to avoid going to the shop.

I hope they don't nick you too badly.

Good vibes! Good vibes!

Hi Ben. I wonder if a bubble balancer would be good enough? I've never used one. I like that smooth feeling when cruising down I-40.

No intention of hijacking, but I use plastic BBs to balance my tires. perfect balance, and it remains that way through the life of the tire.

Excuse my ignorance but how do you do this? (I'm guessing you're talking about air-soft BBs?)

Lots of info on an "airsoft tire balancing" google search. I found a chart for the amount of weight for commercial beads and measured out the equal amount in BBs. I have my own tire machine, I just dumb x amount of BBs in before I pop the bead. Pun intended.

Well I had never read of this before and learned something new.

Here is one site. It also has a reference to where you can look to find a chart of how much weight of media to put in (although the weight of media is for their producth that uses ceramic balls).
http://4x4trailhunters.com/tech/read/18
How much media to use
http://www.innovativebalancing.com/tirechartmap.htm

This is something that I can actually try out. I have a Harbor Freight manual Tire Changer.

Wow. That's pretty neat.

Back to the OP's situation, don't forget about the lowly lift pump. I was having stalling issues after starting and running just fine for several minutes. Also had big whoosh when opening the gas tank. Replaced lift pump, voila, all's well, and no whoosh.

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D, 328K

Is there a test for the lift pump I thought it was mechanical so testing in my mind would be difficult.

I took loose the fuel feed line on my car and put a vacuum gauge across it with a "T" to see how much pull there was on the line. Under 5 was the most it pulled when revving the engine.

I would start with a close examination of the battery ground connections first, and then I'd check the engine to chassis ground strap and it's connections to eliminate these fundementals as problems.

All wheels need to be balanced with a Hunter road force balancer IMHO. Everything else is a waste of time.

Firestone has a lifetime balance for about the price of 2 trips onto the machine. Their wrench jockeys are no worse than other low paying places. I just wander back to the shop & make sure they don't do damage.

Discount Tire price matches web prices - even those hat sell tires at cost & make their $$ on shipping. Pay tax, $7 each install & you're done. Lifetime balance included.

Hey Richard! I agree with Billybob. Loose grounds tend to wreak havoc on computerized components. It's a good place to start.

I bought a '96 VW jetta many moons ago for next to nothing. Would run okay and then randomly start missing and bucking. I figured it was loose grounds and it was. 'Bout 30 minutes of wrench time and it ran like a champ.

I still haven't done a thing to the '96 you sold me 'cept fuel it, change the oil and drive it.

First thing I was planning on doing is checking all the grounds and then go from there.