New to the forum and Hopeful for some help. I have a 98 C230 with 180,000km. Started fine this morning in -20c temp. Let it warm for about 15 minutes, put it into drive and the car would barely move. Barely broke 40km/hr and would not rev much passed 2000rpm. When stopped in gear the engine chugged like it could stall at any moment. I made it to work, shut the car off, re started and now it runs fine!?? Any thoughts on the cause would be appreciated.

 

Low fuel pressure would be my first guess.
Check the pressure on test port of your fuel rail. Did you have to play with the throttle a little to get it moving on every stop and you could push it only so far down otherwise it would stall?
It could be frozen water in the fuel system or clogged fuel filter (you may have still the original filter). Bad fuel pump or wiring connection could have these same symptoms but first step should be the least expensive one, new filter, if the pressure is low.
On M112 or 320 engine it is around 60 psi at idle and min. of 36 psi after 30 minutes off shut down.
Good luck,
Bernard

 

Hey Bernard - Thanks for the advice. Actually, I could push the throttle right to the floor and the acceleration was no different than if I just tapped it. It never stalled but when stopped at a traffic light it would chug like it could stall any minute. I should have mentioned yesterday that it Never seemed to up shift past 2nd, and it would not rev high when in gear. When in neutral however it would rev to redline. You're probably right about the fuel filter - I just bought the car 6 months ago - I suspect most parts are OE. Fingers crossed it was just frozen water or the filter. It ran great this a.m. - 50 km to get to work with no problems. Scott