I mentioned this before, but I was thinking it was something else causing it. I was told before by someone that the fluid in the tranny may need changing, because it was "clunking" harshly into gear at the time, but now that I do not hold the brake when I shift out of park, it does not do that. I thought I had a trick to it, because when I would shift into "R" or "D" when the brake was not depressed, it would not stall out. Today, there were two occasions where that did not work. Actually one time today when I was leaving the dentist office, it did it and I re-started and finally got it to keep from stalling and pulled out to the road. Just before I got there, the engine stalled out again, even when in "D". It had never did this before. It idles at about 500 RPM when in gear when it is running. It does not do this when I first leave, when the engine is cold. Actually, it only seems to do it if the engine temperature is above 80*C, such as when I am in town driving and make a quick stop and back out before the engine cools below 80*C.

I do not think it is the idle, because if it were any higher, it would really bang into gear. Do you think it could really be the tranny fluid causing this? I checked it and it was full and seemed to be OK. The car does not run the smoothest when it is first started in the morning (if it is cold out), so I am thinking this all may be linked? Perhaps a vacuum leak somewhere? It does not sound like it anyway, but I guess a small leak could not be heard.

Well, I am off to the dealership to pick up my antenna seal and perhaps get a key made.

BTW- the car is a 380SE.

Thanks in advance.

MB's of this era have electrically controlled idles. They should hold their idle rpm regardless of engine load or engine temp.

Sounds like some sort of electrical problem.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Thanks.

Well that sounds wonderful. I guess I will call one of our local MB independent repair shops and see if they will check it out for me.

Never heard of an idle control failure/problem on these resulting in a SLOW idle unless the ldle control valve was STUK closed. Remove it and clean it well with spray type carb/choke cleaner. You can test this first by unpluggin gthe electrical connection to the ilde control valve--then engine SHOULD speed up to about 1700 RPM.

Thanks. Not sure if it (idle controls) are the same, but my car is a 1985 380SE. My user name was from years ago.

Also, my idle is actually not low, as far as I know, but it just stalls out when I
engage the gears.

(1990 560sel)
sorry to be a noob here, but i've seen pictures of the idle control valve itself during my search, but I haven't seen any pictures of where it is in the car (while installed). i ask this b/c i tried to use the cd manual to find it but am having no luck... can someone direct me where to look for it?

btw - thanks to those who posted the location of the computer, i was able to find that quickly