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Car Forum / Mercedes-Benz Cars / December 2006Clogged Fuel Filter and dashboard alert
Two cars, two questions, please: 230E 92, W124: After I (imprudently) used a valve cleaning product in the fuel tank, the car starts to lost power specially on hills and hesitates painfully when accelerating. Sometimes it stalls when idleing. I also incidentally changed the fuel´s octane for a higher one at the same time. I dismounted the fuel filter and it was very dirty. I cleaned it as much as I could and reinstalled it. Car went well for a while, then same deal. I dismounted again the filter and it was dirty again. The cleaning product seems to have removed or diluted some kind of tank´s sediment. Is the solution to change the fuel filter, or I will end up with a new filter clogged? Which other thing would you suggest to do? E240 98, W210: During a recent travel I changed the engine oil in a non dealer shop. The electronic dashboard now shows permanently the "exceeded" alert and the "tool" figure asking for service. I have tried many times the procedure listed in the car´s manual to clear the message, but it doesn´t work. Is there anything else that I can do to reset it? I will appreciete your suggestions. MMansilla Nothing could dissolve something like that. I suspect you just got bad fuel. The solution is to drain the tank completely and install a new filter. Reusing old filter is just not worth it as you learned. You are right as usual. I drained the tank and loaded high octane fuel from other gas station. The car now works almost normally. Today I will replace the fuel filter hoping to close the case. As for the W210 I will try the reset procedure more carefully. Thanks > Nothing could dissolve something like that. I suspect you just got bad > fuel. The solution is to drain the tank completely and install a new > filter. Reusing old filter is just not worth it as you learned. You are right as usual. I drained the remaining half tank of high octane fuel. Then I load a tank of lower octane fuel from other gas station. The car began working almost normally. Today I will replace the fuel filter hoping to close the case. And the W210´s dashboard now is clean, after I followed the reset procedure more carefully. Thanks As for your W210... I think you didn't follow precisely as instructed. Try again... it should have reset the oil change indicator. > I also incidentally changed the fuel´s octane for a higher one at the > same time. If the car was running fine, why did you do this? If your car runs fine on low octane fuel, you should save your money and enjoy the increased power and higher gas mileage that comes with low-octane fuel; putting high-octane fuel in a car that doesn't need it is, well, a considerable waste of money and natural resources. > I dismounted the fuel filter and it was very dirty. I cleaned it as much as > I could and reinstalled it. Those parts aren't cleaned during maintenance, they are replaced. Try replacing it/them and let us know how it goes. > I dismounted again the filter and it was dirty again. The cleaning > product seems to have removed or diluted some kind of tank´s sediment. I'm experiencing the same thing, running a vegetable oil mix in my diesel, since the veggie oil breaks up all of the junk that the pertroleum diesel left behind. I've just signed up for the fact that I need to change my fuel filters pretty regularly 'til it's all cleaned up (like, once every couple of fills). Changing the fuel filters on my car is easy, if messy, so it's not a big deal. > E240 98, W210: During a recent travel I changed the engine oil in a non > dealer shop. The electronic dashboard now shows permanently the "exceeded" > alert and the "tool" figure asking for service. I have tried many times the > procedure listed in the car´s manual to clear the message, but it doesn´t > work. Is there anything else that I can do to reset it? Have you examined the oil level with the dipstick, and does it read too high? -tom! -- Recently the gas station was out of low octane fuel. So I put in half tank of high octane. I felt the car running and idleing moe smoothly, and in my ignorance decided to continue using the high octane. It´s just the blind desire to improve the old car´s performance. I just love this machine, the W124, it´s inherited from my father. You know, sometimes love makes one do stupid things. From now on no more high octane, and I orderered a couple of fuel filters for spare. Thanks Ah ha! "Out of low octane" is the answer! The gas station was pumping out all the gunks in their tank onto your car. I bet the high octane is also low when filling up your car and thus pumped all the gunks into your tank. Don't fill from this gas station anymore. Oh yes. It´s a very cheap gas station in an industrial district where I work. It seems that now I just paid the price for my previous "savings". Thanks > Oh yes. It´s a very cheap gas station in an industrial district where I > work. It seems that now I just paid the price for my previous "savings". Years ago I did some experiments at various gas stations, and my results indicated that for the car I had at the time, the increased price of "good" gas was more than offset by the better mileage I got on that gas. The price differential was maybe 5% but I got over 10% more miles on a gallon, so between the actual less money per mile I also had to go to stop to fill up slightly less frequently. As for high-octane fuel, octane is a combustion retardant, so high octane fuel is harder to ignite in the engine. That may be why it seemed to run smoother, because it wasn't burning as it usually does. The rule of thumb is that you should run the lowest octane fuel in your car as you can without causing the engine to ping. good luck, -tom! -- It´s nice and useful to know your calculations, and I thank you for sharing the info. Such experiments must have required time and patience. Regarding the octane, now that I think of it, at the beginning the engine seemed smoother (good, I thought), but soon the smoothness (and my restless) was growing to the point of acute lack of power. It was not only the octane though. I already changed the fuel filter and broke the old one, the inside roll of paper was full of dirt. The filter was a few months old, so the fuel shortage at the gas station sure must have something to do with the it. Anyway, I learned several lessons with this problem. Many thanks > I'm experiencing the same thing, running a vegetable oil mix in my > diesel, since the veggie oil breaks up all of the junk that the > pertroleum diesel left behind. I've just signed up for the fact that I > need to change my fuel filters pretty regularly 'til it's all cleaned up > (like, once every couple of fills). Changing the fuel filters on my car > is easy, if messy, so it's not a big deal. Tom -- As I understand it, the sludge problem in Diesel fuel is fundamentally different than in gasoline. In gasoline the likely cause is sediment in the gas station's tanks. However, current Diesel fuels are both chemically and bacteriologically instable -- tending to break down into a black sludge, Asphaltene. To cure sludge in Diesel, you need a product like Bio-Con or Algae-X which serve three functions: dissolving condensed water that settles in the bottom of a tank so that it can be burned, killing the microbes that feed on Diesel causing it to break down, and dissolving the sludge into the Diesel so it can pass the filters and be burned. In major cases the solution requires that the fuel tank be removed and steam cleaned. A less severe case might be solved just by chemical treatment. I am coping with this on my 1977 300D (320,000 miles) right now and attempting the chemical cure. Also, be sure to keep spare prefilters on hand and change them when a power loss becomes evident. It also helps not to run the tank below half-full. I'd be interested in any other comments others can provide. Peter Hollings |
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