Vacuum in Fuel Tank and common intermittent problem on 1992 190e 2.0

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Hi all, im new to the Mercedes shop forum, i tried the mercedesclub forum, but alas no luck with my problem.

Although it seems a common fault, i have been unable to find any diffenitive answers, or places to look. As said, i have a merc 190e, which up until about 5 months ago, was a cracking car. Then this mysterious problem crept in.

As im sure uve read time and time again, it stalls usually when approaching a junction, when u slow to a stop and idle whilst still in Drive. If u leave it idleing, it sounds as though it misses a beat every so often, and once it has missed that beat, if u try and pull away, it will stutter and jerk when accelerating.

Typically enough, when taken to a garage, it will not display these faults, then 5 minutes after i get it back, it does it again, only to work fine once i go back to the garage.

Such an annoying problem, becuase it is guarenteed to happen at least once every journey, which leads not only to an uncomfortable ride, but also i fear i might be damaging the engine.

Also i have noticed a rather strong vacuum in the fuel tank, i.e when i take of the cap to fill up, there is a strong intake of air into the filler neck (if u see what i mean). Now, am i right in thinking this might be a blockage in some sort of vapour recycler in the fuel tank (if such a thing exists on mercs of this age? i dont particulally want to drill a hole in the cap to release the pressure, rather than fix the fault)


I apologise for the very long post, but i hope it explains my predicament well enough. The enfuriating thing is that when it is running, the old 190 is a joy to drive (although possibly slightly high revving on the motorway, due to the 3 gears on the auto box?)

yours

Matthew.