Benzin'

[Ghosty]

D'you want the Cavalier?

[Bren]

We had two ford granada's with the EEC IV engine management that shat their potentiometers.

They would hunt at idle and die if you took your foot off the accelerator. You could cheat by unplugging the ungrateful thing and letting the management run on a limited operating strategy. No more misbehaving.

The potentiometer on my SD1 was also worn out - you have to adapt a jaguar item to fit and they are £200.

Fook that.

I enlarged the screw holes on mine to increase the adjustment. Close but no cigar.

I pulled it apart ( you are not meant to repair these ) - basically a metal stylus that rubs over a carbon track that over time wears the carbon away.

A bit of thinking came up with some carbon paint ( used in the manufacture of electric guitars ) to paint over the wear. A bit of adjustment with the stylus got the voltage to increase smoothly as the throttle was opened. I have not been able to get the full value that you would get with a wide open throttle but you wouldn't with one that had been bastardised to fit.

As for mail order if my local factor can supply what I need he gets my business - these companies that use couriers / post are not reliable enough.

 

[Volksy]

That seems a shame, but I fully understand  the fear/hatred of KE-Jet. K-Jet would be better, as it doesn't have as many ancient electronics but you still need a degree in partical physics, and god knows what else to fix these systems. I've just spent the christmas morning on mine, fitted some new rear speakers, wet vacced the carpets as best I could, ordered a potentiometer (stupidly to my office where I am not for the next two weeks). But seeing as I had nothing to do today I pulled off the aircleaner and had a good check over of all the vaccuum hoses and electrical connections. Found a couple of suspect hoses, especially a vaccuum hose from the fuel accumulator of the side of the distribution unit, which has loose, and half seated jubilee clips, so adjusted everything and took it out for a spin. I thought at least the roads will be quiet, and no chance of a dozing bus driver ramming me up the arse if it cuts out randomly. 

Low and behold it behaived impeccably, I did 25 miles of stop start and open road, retraced my work commute route and not a glimmer of it acting up... I've to take Mother Volks and Brother and Sister-in Law out to lunch tomorrow, so it's guaranteed to shit itself then in a highly embarassing way isn't it!

I've a fuel pump relay and the afore mentioned potentiometer on order, and my other two cheap OVP's arrived yesterday. 

So far it's had:
OVP, Idle Control Valve, New Fuses, Bosch 'Bumrape' Dizzy cap, Bosch 'OMG moved on to Fisting' Rotor arm and Leads plus bit of pipe etc. So it's not cost a fortune* and it's never completely conked out, it's just been irritating to say the least.  I'm hoping that something I've tinkered with this morning has sorted it. But not holding my breath! 

[SiC]

While looking through the admin panel on massively big files, I found this in the list of old uploads

https://autoshite.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=141355

While not KE and only K, there will be a fair bit that applies. 

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

I need the car to get to work

Does the car not work with the ECU disconnected? From what I've read, KE Jetronic should run in limp mode without it. Not as smooth acceleration or running but it still should function as a car without it though. Of course if it still cuts out in the same way with it disconnected, then it would point towards more the K part of the Jetronic rather than the E. 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

D'you want the Cavalier?

That also cuts out?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

6 minutes ago, SiC said:

Does the car not work with the ECU disconnected? From what I've read, KE Jetronic should run in limp mode without it. Not as smooth acceleration or running but it still should function as a car without it though. Of course if it still cuts out in the same way with it disconnected, then it would point towards more the K part of the Jetronic rather than the E. 

That's not a bad idea, actually - does it still cut out with the ECU removed? May find out. 

[Ghosty]

8 minutes ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

That also cuts out?

True, touche. It always restarts though. I'm looking into it this week.

[R Lutz]

8 hours ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

I'm probably throwing in the towel on this. I need the car to get to work, and the car has been laid up more than I've used it, primarily waiting for parts to arrive. Every part I've ordered has taken an eternity to get here, and now I'm looking at another two weeks of no car while I wait for a potentiometer which may or may not fix it. I am also waiting on a crankshaft position sensor I ordered over a week ago which still hasn't even been dispatched. 

It's a lovely car, and when it works I love driving it. I also love looking at it. But I think K-Jet is simply not fit for purpose in a daily driver in 2024. It's too complicated, and too delicate. In addition, while a good number of parts are available, I've never had such trouble actually receiving parts! The only people who managed to actually shove a thing in a box and post it were AliExpress. 

Unfortunately my NCB is stuck on this thing so insuring something else might be a challenge. Selling it may be a bigger challenge, this time of year. Ah well, for the second time in my life I've learnt - do not buy a K-Jet car!

Maybe a diesel next time?

Have you considered a K11 Micra?

[garethj]

18.7/10, would read again if I wanted to provoke tears and DIY SOS wasn’t on.

I really feel for you with this, it should be a good car and it should be fine to do commuting mileage, but there are so many parts which could be at the end of their life and replacements are either shit or the suppliers are.

It’s probably 1-2 generations too old to have good spares backup and if you need a car for work, you pretty much need things where a local motor factor can get them next day.

A shame that cars of this era which are inherently simple are taken off the road because parts backup is flaky.

Hope its replacement is less troublesome.

[R Lutz]

Its certainly put me off buying a 190 which is for sale locally to me. 

[SiC]

It's made me looking at them more as look like an interesting learning challenge and my W211 has made me a bit of a Merc convert at the moment. 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

It’s late on Boxing Day, so time to settle down with a cup of coffee.
 

While doing laps of the neighbourhood. 
 

(The cup would be more at home in @R Lutz’s Micra)

Here’s the plan. I’ve unplugged the potentiometer. The car drives without it, probably less efficiently, but perfectly smooth. If the car stalls, it’s not the potentiometer. If the car goes the next week without stalling, it’s time to order a new one. 
 

I drove around for half an hour without incident. But will it get me to work tomorrow? Like and subscribe. 

[Bren]

24 minutes ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

It’s late on Boxing Day, so time to settle down with a cup of coffee.
 

While doing laps of the neighbourhood. 
 

(The cup would be more at home in @R Lutz’s Micra)

Here’s the plan. I’ve unplugged the potentiometer. The car drives without it, probably less efficiently, but perfectly smooth. If the car stalls, it’s not the potentiometer. If the car goes the next week without stalling, it’s time to order a new one. 
 

I drove around for half an hour without incident. But will it get me to work tomorrow? Like and subscribe. 

On our granadas' there was no appreciable difference in performance or economy with it uplugged. Ditto the SD1.

I'd rather have it unplugged than fit a shite quality non OE item that won't last.

[R Lutz]

50 minutes ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

It’s late on Boxing Day, so time to settle down with a cup of coffee.
 

While doing laps of the neighbourhood. 
 

(The cup would be more at home in @R Lutz’s Micra)

Here’s the plan. I’ve unplugged the potentiometer. The car drives without it, probably less efficiently, but perfectly smooth. If the car stalls, it’s not the potentiometer. If the car goes the next week without stalling, it’s time to order a new one. 
 

I drove around for half an hour without incident. But will it get me to work tomorrow? Like and subscribe. 

A Mackem mug?? Oh dear.  

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

17 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

A Mackem mug?? Oh dear.  

Mackem house, this. 

[DVee8]

9 hours ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

Mackem house, this. 

Same here mate.

[Nullzwei]

18 hours ago, R Lutz said:

Its certainly put me off buying a 190 which is for sale locally to me. 

What you want is a diesel 190 then. Fully mechanical injection with no ecu's to stop them. They even carry on running if you remove the battery.

[Volksy]

So The Big performed it's duties faultlessly yesterday whilst taking Fam Volks to dinner. However, after dropping everyone off and cruising home at around 40mph it gave a little hiccup but then trundled on. Cut out at the next set of lights. Restarted fine and was ok till I got back. Will check if that vacuum hose has worked loose, but I fear I've still not found the culprit. 

 

[Volksy]

Did find this, which seems to be a pretty comprehensive guide to troubleshooting. Try not to fall asleep whilst reading, or end up being found by family/friends/ambulance rocking in a dark space. 

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/bosch-ke-jetronic-overview.1553096/

[SiC]

Did you have any luck disconnecting the ECU? Might struggle to start and run when cold but should be generally fine when warm. 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

Did you have any luck disconnecting the ECU? Might struggle to start and run when cold but should be generally fine when warm. 

I haven't tried it yet. I'm currently experimenting with only disconnecting the potentiometer. Positive so far. 

2 hours ago, SiC said:

Hold on, quick sanity check! Are you measuring the right terminals? Hard to tell as Imgur is shite for zooming in. But from what I can tell the round thing on yours is on the right but that picture on the left. 

It caught my attention as the (genuinely) fascinating link @Volksy sent above says the below. Makes sense to get lower resistance if measuring the other terminals.

I believe so. Not clear in my photo but my potentiometer is oriented the same as the diagram. 

[SiC]

9 minutes ago, Conrad D. Conelrad said:

I believe so. Not clear in my photo but my potentiometer is oriented the same as the diagram. 

Yeah soz. I wrote it, flicked through the post again and then saw the other angle showing the round bit. So deleted it. You must have caught the post before I got a chance to delete it.

What does the bottom two contacts read?  Also do you get a smooth resistance change as you move the air flow valve with no dead spots?

 

[Back_For_More]

Hope the potentiometer is the culprit and you've sussed it..... Fair play for plugging away at it. 

Another thumbs up for the Mackem mug from here too. 

[Rusty Pelican]

What a saga - hope the potent meter sorts it 

 

[tooSavvy]

48 minutes ago, Rusty Pelican said:

What a saga - hope the potent meter sorts it 

 

If not.... He may give it 'the Golden Boot'!

*Mackem ref 🤣

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

With the potentiometer unplugged, the Baby Benz has done 50 miles in varied conditions without stalling. 
 

So here’s a £70 vote of confidence:

don’t let me down now, hurensohn!
 

How does it drive with a bit of the injection system unplugged? Beautifully! I’ve fallen back in love with the car. The only noticeable issue is that it doesn’t know what to do with itself for the first few seconds of a cold start but settles once the throttle has been blipped. 

[yes oui si]

It really is a fantastic colour combo, lovely car. Hope that it keeps going... 

Are those w202 hubcaps? 

[brownnova]

Catching up on this thread…

Likes: 190 content, Leather interior, sheer bloody persistence, Factoids such as Joe Kinnear owning the straw booted car. 

Dislikes: Tooth pain, broken downness, Sunderland references, the fact that Joe Kinnear was returned to conscious thought, 

Overall: Twelvety out of 10 would read again.

Fingers crossed the unplugging works and solves all the issues! 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

3 hours ago, yes oui si said:

It really is a fantastic colour combo, lovely car. Hope that it keeps going... 

Are those w202 hubcaps? 

Late low spec W124, but I think they did use them on the W202 too. I'm waiting for a nice set of the correct ones to crop up but it's fairly low down the priority list!