I've looked all over the damn engine and I can't find them. I feel pretty retarded about it but can anyone help? It's a 1993 300e 2.8L gas engine.

 

They should be covered under a long black plastic strip on your left side, take that strip off and they should be there.

 

I'm only seeing injectors under there.

 

very good question.

on the middle of course. you need to remove that intake pipe.

then remove the covering on the middle.

 

you mean the panel in the middle of the valve cover?

 

I haven't had a chance to work on it yet, is it the center of the valve cover?

 

yes.

remove the #17.

[IMG]local://upfiles/1/230E16315510496F903FF741DFD28F13.jpg[/IMG]

 

Sleepwalker,

Tell him about the potential problems with a 16 year old engine harness.

Allan_L

 

Thanks Sleepwalker, you're the coolest.

Allan l, what problems?

 

Mgm_300e

If I am right, your car is fitted with an M104.942 engine. This has a HFM fuel injection/ignition control system.
Part of the electrical ignition control cables (engine cable harness) run under the “valve cover” (item #17), above the spark plugs. It gets very hot in there. With time the cable insulation gets hard, particularly if the engine has been overheated.
Now, when the cables are disturbed, say during a spark plug change, the insulation can crack, resulting in short circuits. This will cause engine misfiring and could damage your ECU.
You may be lucky and your engine cable harness may have already been renewed. They usually last about 10 years on W124s.
To check the situation, after removing cover #17, carefully check if the black moulded cables are very hard, brittle or cracked. If the rubber insulation feel soft, then it is likely to be a new cable.
If it is still the original cable harness and if you are very careful when lifting it out, to get to your plugs, you may be OK. However if you intend to keep the car, I would get the cable harness/ignition leads changed, before they cause expensive problems, like blowing up the ECU.
Sleepwalker is an expert on these matters.
Don’t forget to put a smear of copper based grease on your new plug threads when changing them.

Best of luck,

Allan l