Hi

My 19 year old 230 TE (station wagon) has been playing up lately. Upon starting, the engine powers up as per usual but then "whines" - as if the battery is flat, a sort of detuned sound. This is accompanied by the rev counter bouncing around. Sometimes it leads to a stall, sometimes not. Sometimes the sound doesn't happen at all.

Whilst driving, the car sometimes suddenly begins to rock radicaly, as if the fuel is running low. I'm talking extreme, MTV lowrider up-and-down bouncing kind of rocking! It seems to be linked to a sluggish feel on the accelerator. Again, this behaviour is sporadic.

I am no car fundi but to me it seems the problems are linked. When I idle the car and climb outside I can hear the hissing whining sound clearly. Is this a fuel pump problem? Does anybody know what I can do about it?

 

Well, I'm back. No replies to the last post, but here's an update:

My fuel pump, filter and a relay were all faulty. Needless to say I replaced them all; the result was a good one, it seemes. A few months later, however, certain problems recurred - sluggish acceleration and a "skipping" tach / rev counter. I got the car serviced again (different mechanic). They replaced the filter again, changed spark plugs and did some general (and I think unrelated) "service jobs" such as changing the oil.

My car has started skipping beats again, as of yesterday. I have noticed that this behaviour always starts when the tank is low; after filling up, however, the problem remains. Can anybody share a similar story with me? Is there a chance I have dirt in the bottom of my tank? I don't want to reservice my car for another three month reprieve; I want to solve the problem.

Help?

 

Hi,

I am no expert and I have problems of my own but mine seem to be fuel delivery related. However, yours sound more related to ignition.

The fuel pump relay relies on seeing a signal from the tach circuit to keep it powered and you described a bouncy tach signal. Maybe you should look at your ignition system???

Good luck,

Norm

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not too sure about that, but I'll check it out. I'm convinced that the problems are linked to an empty tank; I filled up properly yesterday (following an earlier sub-quarter tank top-up) and since then the problem has reduced.

It's as if there's some residual gunk in the tank (water, even) that sinks to the bottom and gets pumped out only when the tank is low.

I guess I'll just keep the car as full as possible!