LOTS of car stuff going on this weekend - some by choice, some not so much.
Started on Friday with a call from Mrs.Firm stating that the rear hatch on the Escalade wouldn't unlock. Got home early and took the interior panels off so I could manually release the gate from the inside. Once I did, it was obvious that the actuator was dead....Ordered a new one ($45, all in) that should be here on Wednesday.
Woke up early on Saturday to clean up the DD's...washed the DTS then washed and waxed the Escalade. Feeling ambitious I decided to take the SLK out so I could organize some stuff in the garage that needed to go into the rafters above the lift....That's when I had my first FGC experience in awhile....
It started fine after sitting all winter on a maintainer, so I rolled it out and let it idle for 10 minutes in the driveway before leaving to take it for a ride. Felt a bit weird in the neighborhood, and when I got onto the main road and hit the gas I got...nothing. Floor it and the car just very slowly and casually picks up speed. Limped it home and a check engine light popped up....
Code read something about the TPS, so I figured, fine, I'll change a sensor and we'll be good to go.....Wrong. The car is drive by wire and the TPS sensors (both of them) are built into the accelerator pedal assembly. Of course, that's a non-serviceable part, so the entire accelerator pedal assembly needs to be changed - the SLK version, with it's studded stainless steel face is about $400.
So I tried a couple different reset procedures with no luck and called it a day.
This morning I went to the MGB's and with some helping hands made some really good progress. Got the trunk and engine bay in the orange car de-greased and looking good, and made a bunch of little cosmetic fixes on it. Then took the biohazard worthy interior out of the yellow car - many seized bolts and frozen tracks made taking the seats out a terrible job, but we got it done. Everything will need to be pressured washed or thoroughly scrubbed.....All things considered, the floors ain't too bad at least.
Got home and went back to work on the SLK....removed the pedal assembly and inspected/cleaned all the connections, plugged it back in, and low and behold, it's working fine now! Revs great, no codes....Tomorrow I'll bolt it back up and take the car for a good drive to see if the problem returns or not.
This no cable stuff gives me the creeps....
The culprit, this thing has at least 6 moving points, all of them plastic.