Reading Benzworld forums has helped me with a lot of problems in the past -it's time for payback.
My 1995 E320 Wagon started surging while driving on the expressway at speed. I checked the codes- 5,10,16,17,19. After reading everything here I could find about surging I cleared the codes to get rid of old ones, changed the air filter (cheap) and added a bottle of Techtron to the fuel (also cheap). After two days of around town driving I had a little surging at startup and some occasional hesitation when accelerating, but no high speed (above 1500 RPM) surge. I was checking codes every time I arrived home and I was getting 10,16 which both pointed at the Mass Air Sensor (MAS). After a week of only those two codes and mostly idle surging at startup I spent $243 on a new MAS. After a 5 minute installation (including opening the UPS packaging - the car runs perfectly- as before.
I think there are some lessons here. First, when an electrical part dies all kinds of weird behaviors can accompany the death throes - check the codes but let them settle down for a couple of days if the problem is merely irritating rather than one that kills the car. Second, do the obvious maintenance stuff that is related - the air filter was about a year old, and it had been about a year since fuel system cleaner had been used. Third, when the code(s) solidly point to a particular fault, it's probably your best bet to believe them and replace the part.
Linear Mode
