W202 c200 power surging

[deacs]

I have just acquired a 1997 c200 manual and have a slight issue with it. It starts and runs fine in general but the power surges on and off throughout the rev range. Will pull too the limiter but throughout the revs the power delivery kinda feels on-off-on-off.

Any ideas what it could be? Car is a manual with 120,000 on clocks.

 

[A17 LTF]

Could be your coil packs playing up. Had to change mine recently due to a similar issue.

 

[BlackC55]

Could be a possible air mass sensor fault. Plug it in to check the live data.

Also check fior any vacuum leaks.

 

[grober]

Try cleaning up the throttle body throat/butterfly also---- they can get sticky and crudded up.

Could also be a sticky [ broken spring] inlet camshaft timer adjuster.
As Olly^^^ says getting the codes read would be a good start.

 

[horgantrevor]

I'm not sure will it work with your model w202 but if unplug the maf then start it and see if it makes a difference if it those its the maf
But hook it up to a star matching for a quick test will also find the fault

 

[deacs]

Hmmm anyone know of anywhere local to Newquay Cornwall that I can get codes read at a sensible price? Funds are mega tight at min

 

[BlackC55]

It's not just codes you need to read its the live data too. If the air mass is faulty you will get self adaption related codes.

 

[deacs]

Had a look at the maf earlier and it looks pretty new and unbranded so I expect its one of these cheap Chinese eBay ones. They never seem to work right