Questions and Answers

Mercedes Benz 300E Dying Out Q. My 1988 Mercedes Benz 300E starts fine, drives beautifully, and then dies in motion. It will start again, usually very quickly, run awhile and then die again at some point. The car has 155,000 miles on it. I read all of your questions and found the answer to the cruise control problem which sometimes works and sometimes does not.

I bought this car almost a year ago and love the way it drives. It's a beautiful second car for a teacher who has champagne tastes and a beer pocket book.

Thanks...
Bud

A. This is going to be a tough one to track down. There are many causes for this and unless it can be checked when it dies, the best we can do is guess. The best place to start is with a good tune-up, distributor cap, distributor rotor, ignition wires, spark plugs and all the filters.

Also look at the fuel line between the fuel pump and fuel tank. I have seen them get kinked and restrict fuel flow. Other possibilities depend on whether it dies on acceleration or deceleration.

It's possible this will have to become more a more consistent problem in order to check individual components.