Stuttgart Taxi OT

[6speedmanual]

OFF TOPIC question about the family hack, just in case anone can shed any light....

 

Year 2000

S202

C200 PETROL

5speed TipShift _AUTOMATIC.

93000 miles

Full service history. Had a B service at 81000 and an A service at 92000.

 

Very recently, just over a week ago, it has developed an odd problem.

 

It starts from cold fine.

 

When driving away, it pulls away ok but feels slightly sluggish. It then seems reluctant to change up through the box, but it does eventually go up the gears to 3rd. Then it seems to be limited to 4000rpm and stays in 3rd gear. It feels as if some default/safe mode has cut in.

 

If I then slow down and stop the car the engine starts to judder (1 mile and about 3 minutes after setting off). (This feels as bit like the judder one would get if one trying to pull away in too high a gear in a manual, however, the revs are still at normal tickover speed c 800rpm)

 

If the gear selector is then moved to Neutral or Park, the juddering continues. This suggests that the juddering is not caused by the gearbox/torque converter as it continues even when there is no drive load.

 

Gently increasing engine speed with the accelerator pedal does not seem to clear the judder and the engine feels slow to rev up relative to what would be expected from a prod on the accelerator pedal.

 

If the engine is then turned OFF and restarted a few(say 10) seconds later, the problem has disappeared and the car drives with its normal performance with lively acceleration (relative term as this is a C200) and changes up and down through the gears normally.

 

Used every day but has only done this 3 times in the last 10 days. It may depend on the ambient temperature at cold start and drive away.

 

I feel this is some issue with the warm up cycle of the engine and when some sensor parameters are wrong, the ecu is holding back the car's performance.

 

Can anyone make any suggestions to confirm or otherwise if it lies in the engine management or sensors? Is it a known issue to anyone? Where I should start to look for the cause of this problem and set about fixing it?

 

I am a competent mechanic at tackling any work but my brain cannot form a telepathic link with a Merc control module

 

I look forward to your replies!

 

P

 

Merc C200 82bhp/ton = not very much

 

 

6SpeedManual

*tongue*There's no such thing as too much BHP per Ton 😬