Jim,

What did you use to clean all of the black plastic parts?

I was at my tech's shop and used 'brake-cleaner'. . . he uses a lot of it. But carb-cleaner would do just as well.

Remember to clean the inside as well as the outside.

Break cleaner? Wow... I thought that would eat up the plastic!

I'll give it a try.

Thanks!

OK. Spoke to my detailer. He said he used Gunk Degreaser in the engine compartment, them steam. So... no silicon.

I'm taking off all of the plastic parts and cleaning them down now. Once dry, I'll put it back together (with new non K&N filters) and have it towed.
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OK.... parts cleaned and vehicle towed to mechanic. Will report back as soon as I hear something.

How did the battery check out (and the charging system in general)?

Ahhh..... well.... didn't check it, as I spent most of my time making sure all of the silicon was off the plastics. I'll have my repair guy (who by the way is great and VERY REASONABLE) check it.

Just out of curiosity.... if a battery or charging system is going bad, you'd see these symptoms??

Hmm... come to think of it, I'm really not sure when I replaced my battery last.

That's a good point that Larry made: Low battery in a MB cause many strange things but mostly 'phantom' IC lights. Never seen it run poorly but . . .

I have an 'eyeball' test that has worked well for me; when I go to start the car, pause when you get to ignition-key to postion #2. All IC lights come on; observe the brightness. Now start the car and watch the IC lights; if they dim 'badly', you probably may need to fully check the battery/charging system. A bad/weak cell in the battery will cause this.

I didn't notice anything like that. I started it at night and normally that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Well, looks like car was running on 4 cylinders.

We thought it might be a bad ignition control module, but after some testing, it looks like it might be a bad coil (at least I'm hoping so)... stay tuned.

Folks,

Turned out to be a bad coil. Total cost for repair was $300+ dollars. Beats replacing a MAF or Ignition control module, eh?

I had a bad coil once. Shortly thereafter, my ignition module went.
Please make sure your caps and rotors are in good shape. The module is NOT cheap.

Caps and rotors were replaced 2 - 3 years ago.

Time doesn't matter so much as usage. How many miles ago were they replaced?

Hmm... have to check my records. I bought the car in January of 2001 with 65000. It's 7 years later and I have 125000.

Without going to my records, I'll guess they have about 25,000 on them.

25k!? Holy moly! :eek:
They want to be replaced every 15k

(yeah, I know...a little pricey)