jonS

Hi,

my '93 W124 is giving me trouble ......

When I go to start in the morning, (Cold) the engine cranks and starts up well, but immediately cuts out.
The only way I can get it going is if I start with the gas pedal slightly depressed, hold it in for a minute, then let it try to idle. This usually works okay, but during reverse & steering moves, the idle drops way too low and it sometimes cuts out. ??

Once she has been driven for a few mins, everything seems to run better, but the idle looks really low to me, about 550-600 ? With a slight diesel type sound to it ...

Any ideas ??

ps warm starts are usually fine....

help

13benz

Hi, have you put a tune-up on it latley? plugs,fuel filter, air filter? that you say it sounds like it is "deiseling" makes me think the timing is set wrong. if that is possible on your car. if it has a regular distributor, i would check things out with a timing light. mine is electronic and not adjustable as far as i can tell. if yours is electronic it maybe a crank sensor, but those usualy cut out the other way (they cut out when they get hot) change/check filters and plugs before wasting $ on parts you may not need. hope it works out, off to work, cheers.

mhorn

This is a very common problem for 103 engines. Mine does the same thing. Starts instantly with engine cold or hot, but stumbles and stalls out as soon as I release the key. I took it to a Bosch injection certified mechanic and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. There are a ton of things that could be wrong with the car. I personally think it is either fuel related or computer related. Bad plugs and distributor would cause rough running but you would think this would affect the engine at all rpm ranges, not just at idle. 550-600 rpm sounds a little low. Mine idles at about 650 as best I can tell. There is a note from some repair manuals about incresing the fuel pressure on the lower EHA, but you need a special gauge for this.