97 Sl320
 

Gassed up one day and the check engine light came on. I re-installed the gas cap and took the negative lead off of the batterey. Problem solved, for a couple of weeks. Wife put gas in the car and the light came on again, and same problem. Thought it was the gas cap. Now when you put a load on the engine ie...heavy accelerator, the light comes on and engine flutters. When you shut the car off and start it again, something resets and the engine runs fine, until you give it a lot of gas. Then the engine starts to flutter. So everytime you shut the car off, something resets and will run fine until you accelerate.

Get the codes checked with any OBDII code reader, or at an Autozone.

You have an intermittant misfire. Once detected by the engine management system the system shuts down the injector on the offending cylinder, making it a continuous misfire. Recycling the key resets the issue until the misfire is detected again.

You should be setting a cylinder specific misfire code P0301 through P306 by cyclinder. I would probably change the coil to plug connections.

As SB said..change all 3..

http://catalog.worldpac.com/mercedesshop/sophio/quote.jsp?clientid=catalog.mercedesshop&cookieid=2AO123CS42B90XBXEW&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&partner=mercedesshop&year=1997&product=F1010-84561&application=000357362

I would also change the plugs while you are there ..Use Bosch F8DC4 only.
[ cheap, too]

The codes will verify it your problem, but also check the condition of your wiring harness as well.

Sl320
 

Thanks everybody.