My friend have a 1987 240D with 260,000 miles on it... have been and extremly good car..

lately car just die at low speed what could this be ? need spark plugs ?

air filter ? rotor cab? where should I begin..?? thank for any input

Mrsha:

After "all of the above," look and see how gunked up the throttle body is. Not too hard to clean, and won't cost you anything to do the job unless you ruin the gasket removing the throttle body from the intake manifold and need to replace it. Decent discussion of the job on RPR's website (go to www.rprusa.com, click on "Tech Tips" and "Throttle Body Service"). Make sure when you reinstall it that you have the throttle position switch adjusted so that it "clicks" when the throttle closes. Good luck.

/// All of the above. Start with inspecting the air filter, cap, rotor and sparkplugs. You may find the problem before you get through that list but there is no point in replacing more expensive parts until you either know that these are good or replace them with correctly adjusted and gapped parts. There are other parts that can cause the car to stall or stop but start with the basics.

I say they both have it wrapped up. If it's in need of a tune up then, well, do it. But if the throttle body hasn't been touched then it is over-do for a cleaning.

It is very easy, and for the cost of carb cleaner, Wouldn't be a bad 40 minute job to do. I'm betting on the throttle body being the culprit.