Hello all,
New to this forum and am hoping that someone has experienced the same issues thatI'm having with my 2005 SL and can advise me of what a fix is.


My car when first starting cold runs fine, it runs ok and shifts fine... runs like it should, however when it heats up to running temp, it starts to get really sluggish, especially when accelerating from a stop. I would have to push on the gas pedal more than halfway down before it down-shifts and has any life to it to pick up speed.


I also noticed that the check engine light is on but when I try to push it to get it to pick up speed, the check engine light will blink.


I also had a parts store connect their diagnostic tool to it and came back that the air/fuel sensors were failing but when they looked it up in their system, showed that the car does not have those sensors?! LOL!


Any insight will be helpful! Thanks all!


Jerry

Flashing CEL is a very bad misfire.

Thanks for the response... any insight as to how to diagnose this further or what to do to fix the problem? Also, I noticed that the newest thing is that it went from a periodically flashing check engine to now constantly flashing, pretty much from when I start it, to when I shut it off.


Also, do you think that maybe it could be the catalytic converter since the symptoms are more evident when the engine gets up to normal operating temp?


Thanks again.
Jerry

Stop driving it immediately.

You will have a code that tells you the problem.

If your current scanner doesn't show a code, they're either doing it wrong or the scanner sucks.

My assumption on the air/fuel they tell you is either o2 or MAF.

But seriously, stop driving it until you get it fixed.
You can cause irreparable damage to your engine.

Download the FSM in my sig as well.

Lots of great information.

It's like a cheat sheet for our cars.
If you have a code # feel free to post it and not what part the part store thinks it is.

Should read: PXXXX

With the X=code(s)

This.

It's possible for it to be catalysts, as my car acted exactly the same and flashed the CEL constantly when driving. Turned out to be precats. The code I received was an A/F mixture too lean code first that never came back and nothing but a P0300 Random/Multiple Misfire code after that.

Take Fakie's advice and stop driving it right away. There have been 2 cars with your same engine blow their engines in the past 2 weeks on this forum because of precats. Get it diagnosed positively and get it sorted out straight away.

Thanks guys for the info. I dropped the car off at the mechanics today.

Hopefully, I didn't do too much damage. We shall see what he says.

I'll keep you all posted and let you know what the outcome is.

Thanks again!!
Jerry

Definitely let us know. Fingers crossed that the bill isn't too much.

Hey Guys,
OK so here's an update.

Brought the car to my mechanic and was able to replace the front (bank 1) cat. HBe told me that the cat was pretty much destroyed and will show it to me once I pick up the car, however he now needs to address the original issue of why the cat failed in the first place, after only 83000 miles.

He told me that my front 3 cylinders are not firing properly at all and is why fuel had been dumping into the exhaust and ruined my cat. I asked him what is causing those cylinders to fail and told me that this is what he's trying to find out now.

Sounds like an expensive repair that keeps getting more and more expensive! UGH!

With an original P0300 code, has anyone run into this issue and knows maybe what causes the front cylinders to fail?

I'm going to call him this afternoon and want to have some kind of idea of what it could be...

Any insight would be great.

As always, thanks for your input!
Jerry

precats are known to fail on our cars.
I guess just change the plugs if they are still original

Update 2,
I called the Mechanic back and told me that the car was all set. He replaced the cat and the air/fuel mixture sensor.

Picked the car up and ran great for a few days. On Saturday morning, I was going to meet up with some friends for breakfast. Drove onto 95 and as soon as I accelerated to merge onto the highway, I heard from rattling (almost like knocking when you have cheap gas) and the car immediately started losing power. It got so bad that I had to pull over since I would hit the gas, at times all the way to the floor and nothing.

This went on for about 5 minutes or so and after a bit, it seemed to correct itself and started to run OK but kept hearing that rattling noise when I pushed on the gas pedal a little more than half way.

I decided to keep going toward meeting my friends but then changed my mind since its about 40 minutes from my house and didn't want to break down. I started to drive back home and after driving it for another 15 to 20 minutes, started acting up again. No power, needed to pull over and this time, would start bucking really bad. The check engine light was not on through most of this until I got within a couple of miles of the mechanic's shop (this time, not flashing).

Anyway, my mechanic is closed on the weekends so I will need to wait until tomorrow before I can find out what's going on this time... so frustrating.

More to come...
Jerry

That sounds very much like a MAFS issue. You may not need the mechanic for that either, as you can pick up some CRC Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner from Walmart, OReilly, etc. for a few dollars and clean it yourself. There is a good write up or two here on the forum on how to clean it properly. It takes no time at all hardly. Also, check on that code that lit the MIL and see what it says. If it says MAFS related, clean it first, if that doesn't fix it, then replace it. They can be a bit pricey.