Help! 400E Running like crap
 

Good morning -

went to start my 92 400E this am and it almost wouldn't run. i have been having a problem recently that can be best described as a cylinder dropping out. this has been an intermittant problem - nothing as bad as this morning. the car ran, but was threatening to quit out at any moment. when i went to give it the gas, the rpms would drop - sometimes it would recover and rev, other times it would just stall out.
any ideas as to what the heck is going on?

thanks,
ron

Ron,
If you could post a few more details, it'd help track this down. Things like current mileage, how it's been serviced over the years, last time plugs were changed, and whether distributor caps and rotors have ever been replaced.

Does this get better when the engine warms up? Does it run OK at highway speeds?

Any other changes in its behavior, like drop in gas mileage?

Just a longshot, but mine will have a very rough idle the next time I start it if i happen to run it just a little the time before. For example, I start it up just to back it out of the garage to wash it, then later start it again to put it back into the garage (without letting it warm up). I can guarantee that the next time I start it, it'll stumble, and sometimes flood.

the car has just under 103,000 miles on it. i do not have many service records for the vehicle, so i do not know what, if anything, has been replaced. the car was just in the shop a few weeks ago for the 100,000 mi. service. this was not done a dealer, but at my mechanic. i gave him a list of what was required and he supposedly did everything on the list. my son and i pulled the plugs last night - they did not appear to fouled or bad in any way.
i really didn't give the car a chance to warm up this am as i had to get to work. i did back it down the driveway into the street but it was running so poorly, i pulled it back into the garage

Sounds like a bad plug wire, maybe?

1) Are all of the warning lamps lit in the test mode?

2) Do any lamps remain lit while engine is running?

No to 1, such as O2 Sensor and/or yes to 2, such as ABS lamp, could mean OVP Relay or it's equivalent.

thanks to all who replied - it seems the culprit was a rag that we left over the hole in the top of the engine while we were looking at the spark plugs - it was never removed before the airbox was put back on. OOPS! the car runs just fine now that it can breath. guess we'll be a little more careful in the future.....