I have a 1996 C280 Sport. This weekend, I came down a curved ramp at a good clip, and as I turned and the g's built up, I heard a pop under the hood and the engine started running rough with the "check engine" light on. I immediately drove to local MB dealer, which could not help me since repair shop was closed. 1-800 call to MB Assistance was fruitless as well. The funny thing that I notice is that this was the third time in two years that this has occurred, and each time the repair has been "replace 1/6 ignition coil". The first time was in October 1998, then again in March 2000, and now this past weekend. I was taking a curve in 1998 when it happened then, and the car had just been detailed, including engine cleaning, when it happened in March. In fact, the March incident resulted in three return trips to the local dealer. Each time they fixed it, the car drove less than 10 miles and I again heard the "pop", check engine light came on and motor ran rough. Finally, after the third return trip on the same day, the shop guys went behind closed doors and had a huddle meeting, took the car back in and fixed it, at least until yesterday! Any idea why this keeps happening or what the heck is the problem? Any suggestions are appreciated!
jPc

Sounds like the fuel system isn't suppling enough fuel at full throttle! Weak pump Or fuel filter needs replaced!

I appreciate your insight. I asked the service writer if he considered the fuel delivery/pressurization and he admitted that this was not checked. He suggested that I replace all 6 plugs, which I politely declined, since they were already replaced in Oct98 and March 2000 by his shop! I suggested to him that there would be no value in replacing the plugs and that they were not the problem with triggering the "miscellaneous" engine code. He admitted this too. I declined to take the car out today, since he has not diagnosed the problem, and I suggested that he do a "spirited" test drive, with hard turns, to trigger the problem again. I don't know if the problem fixed itself or if his resetting the error code made the engine run properly. Whatever the issue, I don't want to take the car until they tell me they have pinpointed this troublesome problem. It seems that all they do is plug it into the computer and do what it says without any other diagnostic analysis. Do you agree that the plugs are pointless?
thanks