190E 1987 intermittent engine cut out
 

Engine cuts dead very intermittantley when stopping at an intersection will start immediatley and may not do it for a month.The car runs very smothly and starts easy. I can tell when it is going to cut as it hesitates at several intersections before it cuts .IT happens more often maybe 3 times a day when going down hill.
Allen

curse of the TLAs
 

Don't know much about your engine but the fuel injection system's the same as the 300E I think. If that's the case, sounds to me like the Idle Control Valve.

Most likely cause is a dodgy OVP relay, second most likely is the ICV is gummed up inside, third most likely is a bad/intermittent connection somewhere between the ECU to OPV to ICV, worst case scenario your ECU is cutting out power to the OPV/ICV circuit.

Do you have Anti Lock Brakes? Does the warning light ever come on? If so, its your OVP relay which runs on the same circuit.

Otherwise, you need to check power to the ICV while the engine is running. Should see about 6v constant across the terminals. You can, apparently, check the current as well but that's never worked for me. You can also hear the ICV click into running position when its powered up. If there's no current, the unit drops into limp home mode which allows an idle of around 550rpm, enough to idle but not enough to maintain idle on deceleration.

Try a search on ICV/OPV and wade through it. There's hundreds of posts on this one subject alone. Even some diagrams so you know where to find everything.

Good luck

my 1984 190e has had some engine wiring harness issues. I found the wires from the coolant sensor were decayed inside the harness about 4 inches back from the sensor plug, did not find it until the wire broke. you can check the condition of the wires by removing air cleaner assy. and [B]carefully[B] cutting the outer covering back to inspect the wiring. After inspection just use electrical tape and wrap the cover back on the harness.
hope this helps.
Joe