HELP ASAP! 89 190E stranded won't start can someone help me diagnose this!
 

i'm stranded far from home with a 1989 190E i just recently bought and unfortunately don't know to much about .... it seemed to be running fine and then died and i can't get started i'm thinking maybe it ran out of gas and possibly sucked up some crap from tank and plugged fuel injector module on top of engine .... i need some advice on how to diagnose it!!


the first time i started it today it seemed to start fine ... just take a little longer and idled smoothly about five mins .. @ least then choked and died .. when i tried to restart ...totally dead .. no fire .... i then noticed the reserver light on ughhhhhhhhh! and assumed i might have ran out of gas and put in 6 gallons ..... from jerry can ...

@ first i thought it was maybe a dead fuel pump but it seems like lots of pressure when i loosen the big pipes coming into it when you crank the starter over .....

and the smaller pipe that goes into the front has lots of pressure but nothing seems to come out the top four ports when i loosened all those lines off it just dribbles out ..... that's what lead me to believe it's plugged

and when cranking the carb seems dry ... no fuel at all ....

if so how do i clean it out ....

Fuel pressure on that MB MUST be 85psi. Unless you have the pressure checked first....

i'm afraid that still doesn't help me much ...i have no way to meausure it " on the road" you know ..:o how can i tell if the fuel distributor which i assume that whatr it is called is not dead .... when i removed all the lines off the top and cranked it it barely dribbled out ??

So here goes....


You need at least 3 things to get a gas engine to run:

Compression
Fuel
Spark

We will assume you have compression.

You seem concerned about fuel so lets start there. One easy test you can do on the road is get some starting spray and spray some in the intake and see if it will run for a second or 2. If so then that suggests you do possibly have a fuel problem.

If not then pull a plug or plug wire and look for spark (don't do this in bright light or you might not see it).

Good luck.

The carb is dry? Isn't that car fuel injected? 85 psi would be awfully high for a carburated fuel system (could you imagine a stuck float at 85psi?), so let's assume yes.

So, in other words, you're looking in the air intake, and it is normal for it to be dry.

Crank the car for 10 seconds or so. Then pull a spark plug. It should smell like unburnt fuel, if the engine is getting any. If it does, then you can probably assume that a lack of spark is to blame, rather than a lack of fuel.

If it's got no spark, work your way backwards from the spark plugs testing along the way. Look for loose or damaged wires, and look for carbon tracks on the coil and the distributor.

If there's no fuel evident in there, then you are indeed having a fuel delivery issue. Check the relay and/or fuse for the fuel pump. Again, starting at the engine work your way backwards until you find the problem.


Good luck


-tp

i tested ALL the spark plugs and trust me they have spark :eek::rolleyes: guess how i know :)

and i'm sure compresion doesn't disappear that quick .... anyway

it has a new coil & fuel thingy ( big silver round with big lines connected to it , hooked to the thing on top ( fuel distributor
) with all the lines going into ... no i don't know what it's called sorry ...


waht really bugs me it WAS running fine and just died ... i'm thinnin it is plugged not sure ... how hard is it to take it off and clean it out ... .

and for some reason when you spray fuel in carb it does nothing ... no fire ...


any of the big lines have fuel pouring out of it when you crack it open and crank it ... and the small line too ... but nothing coming out of fule distributor if that's what it's called ...

your turn :)

"and for some reason when you spray fuel in carb it does nothing ... no fire "

Once again, your car does not have a "carb". Are you spraying fuel down the air intake?

"it has a new coil & fuel thingy". You're losing me with your technical terms. :D

If it's "new" then obviously it was replaced to address whatever issue you are having, or is now the cause of it. Who replaced it? When? Sounds like a warranty job.

Try cranking it with the airflow meter plate pushed down part ways....


Is it a 102 or a 103 motor in there? You didn't specify.....

call it what you want but i sprayed it into the air intake and it's a 1989 190e, with 2.6 like i said spraying anything into intake does nothing ... no fire ....

I had similar symptoms, spark but no fuel coming out of the injector lines and no start when I poured a little fuel in the air intake, and what I did makes no sense to me but I unplugged the OVP relay, jumpered the voltage pins and it started. I then plugged the same OVP back in and it has started ever since - about 2 weeks now. My 91' 2.3 has the OVP relay behind the battery - mine has 2 red fuses in the top of it. You can jumper pins 30, 30a, 87e, and 87l together to bypass the OVP function (put battery voltage everywhere it needs to go). The side of the relay has the pin layout on it. Good luck.

So you have spark and compression yet when you spray 'fuel' in the intake manifold you still have no combustion??? That's Quite odd... I'd leave one wire off w/ a plug attached while someone cranks and you spray...just to be Sure you're still getting spark.

If the timing of the spark is that far off...well, jumping time is a possibility..

Jonathan

What have you put into the air intake? Liquid gasoline may not be getting where it needs to go. Try starting fluid. It will aerosolize much better.

Karl M.

i agree it's quite odd to me too...i tried pure " liquid " gas, carb cleaner but not either yet and i eve ntook the battery out to check those fuses and found them fine ....

anyone know how to disassemble the fuel distributor so i can clean it ...?? i took all the screws out but it won't split apart hmmmmmm

"call it what you want but....."

No, I am calling it what it IS, not what I want.

Look, dude... You came here asking for free advice, so let's drop the 'tude, ok?

I've suggested several things, and you either haven't tried them or reported back their failure, so I'll leave this thread to those more willing to deal with your lack of patience.


I will say this, however... Judging your skill level by your posts, I would highly recommend that you NOT open your fuel distributor.


-tp

The OVP can be bad and the fuses still good. If the OVP doesn't work you won't get fuel.

Could it be the crank positioning sensor?