Hi Guys, I got this car as a project a year and a half ago, long story short, at that time after discovering engine harness problems I did a quick rebuild on the worst parts...the car has run well for a year since...then it started running poorly (running on 5 or so cyl.) and I decided I'd wiggle some wires to see if that'd do anything....well it did! it sarted a mild fire at the maf wiring.... being caught off guard I hesitated for a breif second or two before shutting off the car which was still running and dissconnected the battery....ok that does it I thought now I'm gonna pop for the damn engine harness....of course mines got the later model expensive one and I figured the maf is probably junk as well as maybe the ecu.... So my good freinds at the local dealer did discount it down from $1270. list to $895.. or so and I bought it...Then me35 yrs auto rebuilder and my new best buddy an out of work mb tech who likes to drink (also old) installed it...great! it took a couple hours, we finished and I went to fire it up....welp it stumbles like it wants to start but then does'nt...So I figured it's the maf and ordered one...that comes ,I install it same thing, stumbles but no start....then I go to local junk yard and get really lucky and find a ecu that matches! bought it cheap! come back, install it and no change same thing....I then go back and check everthing again...all connects are correct and good fuel, pump is working but I even jumped it at relay to make sure....still the same, wants to start but stumbles...kinda like it's out of gas...ok for the hell of it I take some starter fluid and spray it in the intake and low and behold it fires up ,,,at least till the fluid sprayed in burns off, then back to stumble wants to start runs a second and a half quits, back to stumble no start ...yes theres gas in the tank...altho I smoked some wires it was very localized and all was fixed got any ideas? anyone have any luck with obd2 scanners on these? I need the experienced guys who've lived thru this...This car ran great before this and the dead cylinder was probably a bad coil which I'm already fimiliar with.thanks Cliff

You might as well try reading the OBDII codes. What have you got to lose? Doesn't your car also have some flash code reading on the 38 pin?

I triedI tried, no codes from obd2 scan...no nothing, the bat was disconnected so that must've erased any codes, I even fired it up on starting fluid again hoping it may have set new ones but no luck...after reading more from my alldata subscription I may have to reset computer, but that takes either a m-benz hand held scanner or a much more expensive obd2 unit then mine...I'm not real fimiliar with reading flash codes on these 202 cars, but I just googled it and found direction for that...we'll see what happens.....but I'm still listening to any other ideas....so keep'em coming....thanks, cliff

You have a transition car diagnostically but the Baum book seems to suggest that you can read the flash codes on the HFM (pin 4) and the CC/ISC (pin 7) on the 38 pin, which would be your two most important modules. I'd build the code reader and give it a try.

I started to get one built and got most of it done then, with a push from A Dalton decided to take an actual fuel pressure reading with a gauge instead of the squirt myself in the face method I previously used and found it to be only .5 bar then went straight to the pump and got the same....which I'm a bit p.o.ed about cause this pump was a m-b over the counter new approx. a thousand miles ago...In the morning I'm gonna call and make some noise and see what happens...unless the check valve is something to consider and can be serviced....yet I'm still a bit miffed about how it was running fine till a block from my house the coil puked and it started running on less than 6 but was still running right otherwise before I wiggled the wires to the maf that started the fire that led to the new harness that led to a fuel pump volume failure????? it did sit outside for a couple months at the end of winter......thanks, cliff

Ok for those following this thread here's what happened,...The fuel pressure test lead to pulling the tank screen to make sure it was'nt plugged up....I could'nt help notice there was'nt a gush of fuel as soon as I removed the feed hose from the tank....I pulled the screen and it was clean and still no fuel gush hmmmm. I'd just put 20 bucks of premium in it an hour before this happened, Altho I do have intermittent gauge outages, (thats all gauges probably due to the know bad connects at the back of the cluster) my gauge is otherwise trustable.... I put it all back together and went and got another 4 gallons of premium in a can. put it in the tank and viola! it runs!...the gauge now reads a little over half tank...so I surmise that somehow the less than half tank that was in the car must've all been in the pass. side of the tank where there is no feed line....sounds stupid right? well it was a lot of work and screwing around for nothing but at least it's running and hopefully this is all it needed....the only things that may have somehow caused this are sitting for about 2 months, having the car jacked up both from the front and then the rear at fairly high angles...something to consider if your car won't start for seemingly no reason....thanks for interest and help...cliff