Hello
Following on from my adventures putting right the results of neglect and bodgery my 230ce was subject to by previous keepers or their trusted repaires, I though I might share in case someone else facing similar head scratching may find a solution:
1) Erratic idle and stalling:
My car always did this. Got porgressively worse. Turned out to be the OVP relay. Replaced it and problem fixed. Only fit the genuine MB ones, got through 3 non-genuine ones which were all faulty (various faults). Genuine MB one fixed it.
2) Slow idle when cold (500 RPM) fast iodle when hot (1300 RPM):
This problem showed when I replaced the OVP relay. Turned out to be dodgy idle control valve. £108 from Euro Car Parts for genuine Bosch.
3) Hard starting and increasingly worse misfire:
This turned out to be ma horrible bodge, only discovered when I thought I might try changing the plugs to sort the misfire. The leads disintegrated as I removed them must have been the oprignals and at 18 years old, were well perished! But when I looked under the plastic cover to removed the coil lead, it was missing its rubber cover and was bodged in place with black silicone. Anyway, the disintegrated leads meant my car was a non runner, and I could not get hold of proper leads (sunday afternoons are a bad time to work on cars in case something goes wrong and you need parts!) so hotleads have worked and cured it. Just don't look under the bonnet at my garish mix of one genuine bosch lead and orange or yellow hot wires. Anyway this cure the hard start and misfire. No wonder, the coil lead at the distributor cap end was broken, wire only just touching, it all fell apart when I attempted to GENTLY remove it.
Investigating all the usual supects like CO, vacuum drew blanks - I replaced all the vacuum connection and breathers, and it made no difference.
So just goes to show that its not always an expensive cure round the corner!
One useful tool, I bought a Gunsons Gast tester professional fropm Halfords for £25 (I think it should have been £75) with missing instructions, but luckily you can download these from the Gunsons website. This has proved to be very useful for setting my CO and making sure it is stable (ie not fluctuating).
I have set the CO at 1.0% and it seems very happy like this.
Following on from my adventures putting right the results of neglect and bodgery my 230ce was subject to by previous keepers or their trusted repaires, I though I might share in case someone else facing similar head scratching may find a solution:
1) Erratic idle and stalling:
My car always did this. Got porgressively worse. Turned out to be the OVP relay. Replaced it and problem fixed. Only fit the genuine MB ones, got through 3 non-genuine ones which were all faulty (various faults). Genuine MB one fixed it.
2) Slow idle when cold (500 RPM) fast iodle when hot (1300 RPM):
This problem showed when I replaced the OVP relay. Turned out to be dodgy idle control valve. £108 from Euro Car Parts for genuine Bosch.
3) Hard starting and increasingly worse misfire:
This turned out to be ma horrible bodge, only discovered when I thought I might try changing the plugs to sort the misfire. The leads disintegrated as I removed them must have been the oprignals and at 18 years old, were well perished! But when I looked under the plastic cover to removed the coil lead, it was missing its rubber cover and was bodged in place with black silicone. Anyway, the disintegrated leads meant my car was a non runner, and I could not get hold of proper leads (sunday afternoons are a bad time to work on cars in case something goes wrong and you need parts!) so hotleads have worked and cured it. Just don't look under the bonnet at my garish mix of one genuine bosch lead and orange or yellow hot wires. Anyway this cure the hard start and misfire. No wonder, the coil lead at the distributor cap end was broken, wire only just touching, it all fell apart when I attempted to GENTLY remove it.
Investigating all the usual supects like CO, vacuum drew blanks - I replaced all the vacuum connection and breathers, and it made no difference.
So just goes to show that its not always an expensive cure round the corner!
One useful tool, I bought a Gunsons Gast tester professional fropm Halfords for £25 (I think it should have been £75) with missing instructions, but luckily you can download these from the Gunsons website. This has proved to be very useful for setting my CO and making sure it is stable (ie not fluctuating).
I have set the CO at 1.0% and it seems very happy like this.
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