I've got an old Merc 230E 4dr auto (1989) - which I am fairly sure has a carb and is not injected.

The last few days, there has been a hissing sort of noise towards the back of the car. Almost like a pump whining......I assume this would be a fuel pump?

Anyway, tonight the hissing/whining got worse and the car started to kangaroo jump - ie, obviously a fuel issue.

Does this sound like a fuel pump failure - or perhaps just gunge in the system somewhere??? Suspect pump because of whine.

Anyone know where the pump is located on these cars? Is it near the tank?????

Lastly, anyone know (very roughly) how much these things are and how easy they are to replace (1 hour labour?)

Cheers,
Richard

 

open the bonnett, that way you can tell if its a carb or injection, if you cant tell close the bonnett walk away cos you aint gone be able to fix it yourself.

hissing could be all manner of things, you need to find the hissing before trying to diagnose the fault & then fixing, get under the car, try balancing in on a sissor jack if you want to kill or injure yourself & get right under it & ask someone to start the car, then when you have located the noise you can work out how much it will cost to fix, a merc garage wont be cheap, a back street garagfe will probably be best, but get recomendations before using any back street place & make sure you & they know what the problem is, what they are going to replace etc before anything is started.

If it is the pump it should be reasonable easy to replace

 

Hehe...thanks for that - I am perhaps not as mechanically naive as I made out....just not looked under the bonnet recently to remember if it is a carb or injected engine :-) These things don't bother me mostly until something goes wrong in that area :-)

Just never had to do a fuel related diagnosis before.......

 

Take the fuel filler cap off and see if it improves - cheap, if its the cap - worth a try first!!

Pete

 

..just out of interest, what exact technical issue would replace of the fuel filler cap resolve????

Pressure build up????

 

what pslewis is suggesting is a vacuum buildup due to a fuel filler cap not venting (if the tank is vented by the filler cap)

 

worth a shot - car was kangarooing earlier after about 10 minutes of driving. Came back, switched engine off for 5 minutes, and it was ok again for round the block....

Will try it tmmrw.....