The rough idle is more accurately a too slow idle...maybe 250rpm or something barely faster than the cranking speed. A slight mash on the smoke pedal and it smooths out...10-15 seconds of running and she idles normally.

I know without a doubt that one dead GP at anything below 40F and she'd be sitting until it was replaced. Been there a couple of times...

To look at her, you'd probably wonder why she's still running at all. Gawd, I flog that car and she gives and gives and gives. Like now, there are 6-8 bags of range cubes and a bag of dog food in the rear. No bath in over a year....well, you saw her at Joseph's GTG. Hopefully I'll have my shop finished in the not-too-distant future and will have a hospitable place to work on the fleet.

FWIW Jimmy, I bought another Euro 240 the other day. Really rough body and a backyard a/c installation but has a good engine that I can put in my other Euro with the bad head.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

We'll see how mine fares. It's still 22F right now and I'll go out in a bit and give it a start.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

I thought you said "early" The sun is already up!

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82 240D Manual 277K and still rolling!
02 Volvo S60 AWD For Sale

Brrrr....where's global warming when you need it?

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I am not trying to do a one up on anybody but I am trying to find out what I am missing.

I get 15 to 20 degree's every night this time of year and I never sweat the start. The white ghost sits outside and it is dark when I start her every morning for my commute. 1 cycle and imediate start. Even when it gets below 0 I still do not have an issue.

It seems to run quieter and smoother at first start than after it warms up.

I only have 132k on her so I suspect when she gets a bit older I will see these issues. Would that be the case. Just curious....

99 E300

Sure wish I had the heated seats

Around here (north central Texas) we rarely see temps as low as they were yesterday, are today and predicted for tomorrow so, I never get many opportunities for cold start tests.

Hell, I even had frost on my cows this morning and the dogs walked on water!

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

It got down to about 14 algores here overnight.

The 300D with 5w40 started right up as always (still has the original glow plugs).

The 240D with 15w40 in it started up on the second attempt, but it definitely wasn't happy about it. I thought I might be able to get away with 15w40 over the winter, but maybe I need to reconsider.

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Palangi

2004 C240 Wagon 203.261 Baby Benz
2008 ML320 CDI Highway Cruiser
2006 Toyota Prius, Saving the Planet @ 48 mpg
2000 F-150, Destroying the Planet @ 20 mpg



TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
BERNIE .......... NUTHOUSE
0BAMA .......... OUTHOUSE

Just curious if any or all of you guys depress the accelerator one time after the glowplug light turns off, but before cranking?

I do it occassionally, but temps really don't get that low in san diego to matter much.

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1982 240 D, 308,000 - 321,127 miles (sold)
1982 300 TD,166,500 - 226,000 miles
1998 E 320, 120,000 - 144,000 miles
2005 C 230 K, 26,000 - 77,000 miles (sold)

Well, yall had me curious so outside I went. Temp measured anywhere from 15.7 to 21 depending on sun or shade.
White wagon currently has donated it's battery to Smash for winter.
I've been plugging in Smash the last couple of days, but since I'm not working today I didn't plug him in last night. I let it glow about 20 seconds after the light went out and he sputtered to life. He wasn't happy at all, but he started.
Let the Batmobile glow about 10-15 seconds after the light went out. It started so fast that all the fun was taken away.
China??? Seriously??? I didn't even bother........ Like me, China is a warm weather creature.

BTW, the seats were so cold in the Batmobile that a search party has been summoned......

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

So here's what happened. I glowed, waited some seconds after the light went out and started it. I had to give it some pedal to stay running. I took my foot off and it fell dead. On the second attempt, I did the same thing during glowing, except I kept my foot on the pedal for about a minute. After that, it stayed running, just stumbled a little though. I'll try to post my little video later.

I also found a blue block of ice in my windshield washer fluid tank. You don't see that often here in Houston.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Being a noob and worrying about cold starts, I've been plugging the euro in for an hour or so before my kid takes it to school every morning. Our mornings so far have been in the 20-30F range. The other night he forgot to stretch the exptension cord out to the car before he went to bed, so when I went outside to plug it in at 5 a.m. and still found it neatly coiled, I decided to see whether all this plugging in was worth it. The car fired after one glow as it always does at 24 degrees. We usually get some 12-14 degree mornings in late Jan-early Feb, but until then, or maybe not even then, no mo' grid power for Lyla

BTW, we named her Lyla. The plate number is LYL9, but "Lil 9" just sounded way too GEH-toh.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Here's how my windshield washer reservoir looked this morning.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

I bought my '99 E300TD new in Omaha, Nebraska, from MB. It came with heated seats. Saved $3,500.00 versus buying it in Texas at the time.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a battery-strength issue. If the battery can't crank the engine long enough AND at a high enough RPM - you're going to experience non-starting troubles.

My '02 7.3 PowerStroke diesel utilized in-tandem Motorcraft 750CCA batteries, as original equipment. Checking them recently @ Auto Zone, one was totally dead since it was original equipment, so even though the PSD will start on one battery rated @ 762 CCAs according to Auto Zone's free battery testor - the dead one was dragging the start at and under 30*. Since they were already 7 years old, I bit the bullet and bought two new Motorcrafts with 850 CCAs. Boy does she start like a champ now! The other morning in the Delta of Mississippi, it got down to the low teens - no block heater overnight since I parked overnight at a Mississippi State Park campground directly on the Mississippi River. Started like a dream! Motorcrafts are known to last up to 10 yeras, BTW. So the $124.99 plus tax each for 850 CCAs was worth it to me.

naner naner

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Pumping the accelerator shouldn't do anything to improve starting on a diesel.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.