Poor Running 230GE
Hello All. Hoping for some advise on the following symptoms which are intermittent and seem to be more severe if the G sits for several days without driving:
- First start in the morning is normal and idle at ~8K RPM.
- Light throttle to accelerate is normal until first stop (which always happens at the bottom of a bloody hill) and engine dies. Several cranks over with spitting from the exhaust and it finally fires back up and runs with the revs held high and lots of throttling. Get it going again and keep the RPMs high while driving and it spits and loses power and then gets power back and this happens repeatedly for a mile or so as it clean (sorts) itself out. Once it's cleared out seems to run fine for the rest of the journey and usually rest of the day.
- I haven't performed a full vacuum test but have tried the carb cleaner spray on the vacuum hoses and didn't notice a change in engine speed. The EGR valve doesn't look to be in great shape.
- Before the loss in engine power described above started happening, the ignition off hasn't been consistent for quite some time and the G will often run until stalled.
Can someone please advise if these symptoms would possibly be related and some ideas for diagnostics? What are the most common areas for vacuum leaks and as I'm having a tough time locating an EGR valve at a reasonable price, is there an EGR delete option for the 230 GE?
Cheers in advance.
1989 230 GE
Hi G-AZ
I have owned a 230 GE for 12 years but am no technical expert!
I have had the stalling at idle - it was caused by a sticking butterfly valve on the air intake to the fuel injection. Sorted with a clean with carb cleaner spray.
How well serviced is your 230? How old are the plug leads / distributor cap / rotor arm / spark plugs. A cracked distributor cap with a touch of damp in it will give miss fires.Check all the coil connections. When was the fuel filter last changed? All of these will need changing at some point. A failed fuel pump followed by a failed new fuel pump caused me a lot of heartache.
I have not yet had any problems with the fuel injection or vacuum connections but the car has only done 200k + miles.
sounds like cold start issue,then you rev the bollocks off it until its warm and its fine
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Thanks Panzer and Scouse. Plugs and fuel filter are new. I've inspected the cap and rotor but haven't replaced but I agree and will take your advise to just change them out along with leads as routine maintenance and hope it makes a difference. Before I head off today I'll give it a long warm up as well.