Hi! I am hoping that someone here can help me with this situation.

I have a 240 series station wagon. About a month ago I had my mechanic give the car a tune-up. I had complained to him about the car "pinging" on acceleration and unbeknownst to me he put a cleaner in the fuel tank. Well, the car ran great for about a month. Then, it started giving me intermittent problems with acceleration. It seemed as though there was something clogging the fuel line so we returned to the mechanic and had the fuel filter replaced. He confirmed that the filter was clogged. The car ran great once again for about 3 weeks. Now it is starting to give me trouble again. It acts as though the engine isn't getting fuel - the car shuts off. It always restarts and runs fine when this happens. It acts as though the fuel to the engine is being cut off.

Should we replace the fuel filter again? Could this be an intermittent problem with the fuel pump? My husband is talking about having the fuel tank dropped, cleaned, and sealed, but I don't necessarily want to go to that expense.

Would appreciate any assistance from anyone.

Thanks.
Tropical Lady

WIth the engine off, disconnect and inspect the air mass meter connector under the hood. If the connector is in poor condition or dirty, clean it and/or tighten the pins a tiny bit. Inspect all the wiring for signs of wiring harness degradation. All cars through 1988 have problems with wire insulation crumbling.
The symptoms are remarkably like what you describe. I just tracked this problem down earlier this year in one of my '87s. Esssentially, the lack of AMM signal makes the computer run in "limp home" mode- cycling the ignition key resets things.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 220K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K, 88 244GL 145K

Thanks for the info. I will definitely try what you have suggested. There are moments when my 240 feels as though it is "burping" - i.e., it seems like it is beginning to stall out and lose power, sometimes stepping on the accelerator will relieve the problem. Other times the car just dies and as you mentioned resets everything when I recycle the ignition. This is such an intermittent problem.

Where is the air mass meter connector? What does it look like?

Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know if this does the trick.

Tropical Lady