Hi! I've got a 1984 240DL that I bought cheap about a year and a half ago and in order to keep things cheap I've given it alot less love than it needs. I'm about to attempt some heavy commuting with it so I figured I should probably fix some of its ailments before I kill the poor thing entirely.

One of the main problems is a sort of delayed acceleration. It tends to go away after driving for awhile or if the car is somewhat warmed up but increasingly it happens all the time. The problem is like this, floor the accelerator and the car basically putters along as if you weren't pushing the pedal at all. After 5 or 6 seconds something kicks in and the engine gets juice and the car accelerates properly. Sometimes the acceleration is combined with a hollow bang sound from somewhere under the hood. It still doesn't happen 100% of the time. Sometimes the engine seems happy and accelerates without complaint. It also tends to be exacerbated if your starting from a standstill on an incline and then maybe also if there are many angry cars behind you but that part could be my imagination.

Thanks in advance!

robot