My family owns an 89 300TE with about 130k miles on her. The car has had a lot of problems with it. A brief history that might be relevant:

10 years ago someone dumped sugar/salt in the engine, entire fuel system was flown in from Germany and replace, the engine was sandblasted but was left with 2 cylinders with slightly low compression.
2 years ago the car barely passed emissions due to high hydrocarbon count. The car was run on the interstate for a bit and passed with .001 to spare.
1 year (about 1500? miles ago at most) the alternator was replaced. At the same time the mechanic said that it might need a new fuel pump (I think I cannot remember what might need to be replaced but it would cost 1-2k$ for parts and labor combined). Although a few years ago I swear the fuel pump had been replaced.
4 months (200-400 miles ago) distributor cap was replaced with the mechanic noting major carbon deposits.
1 month ago after sitting for 3-4 weeks while I was in Africa the car leaked a small puddle of fuel (and the normal transmission fluid seepage as well).
There is no oil evident in the coolant.


For the past few months the car has been having a new problem. The car will start perfectly and run fine until it is shut off for a short amount of time. For example if you went grocery shopping or a beer run. When you go to start the car cranks but will not start. On occasion after a few false starts the car catches and if it doesnt die, will run rather rough, stalling if the engine rpm falls below 800-700rpm. (it normally idles around 500). If the car is left for a few hours there are no problems at all. The cars exhaust has a strong smell of unburnt fuel. If the rpm goes over 2500-3000 a big cloud of black soot? comes out the back. (Think ww2 destroyer laying a smoke screen).

So here are my questions. Is it worth fixing on a car this old? Would my family have a chance at selling it? Should they forget it all and donate the car to charity? I have a younger brother who is learning to drive and we were thinking of letting him use this car for his first few accidents.

 

Sounds like it is over-fueling. I am not sure what exactly is causing it, but it doesn't sound like it has had that many problems...it would make an excellent first car for your brother(super safe). My Kombi has made a damn fine 3rd car for me and I have no intentions of selling.


Have you checked under the hood at the diagnostic port flash/code light to see if anything pops up? Could be a simple as a fuel pump relay or O2 sensor.

 

Thank you for your input. I am taking it in to the mechanic today for some diagnostic work. I did look at the o2 sensor and thought it was fine, although it might play some role with things. I will post up what I find out.

Thanks again!

 

You should run the codes. That will tell you a lot about what is or is not going on. If you do a search on the threads for "code reader" there is an instructional on how to make a DIY reader. This will help you to know if it is O2 sensor or something else.