Here is part two of the puzzling saga of my 240D starting problems. A couple of days ago we got our first sub-freezing weather. To my astonishment, my '83 240D started without much fanfare that cold morning. I went to work, came out nine hours later and the glowplug indicator light did not work as normal. I kept on turning the car over and it tried to start, but would not stay running at first. Then, the car quit trying to hit at all and the battery started getting weak. I tried to double jump the car with two other cars, verified that I was getting voltage to the glow plugs (I was). The car would turn over but not hit. This saga went on for a few days, I gave up and put the battery on the charger for the weekend (still at work) and picked up a can of non-ether starting fluid from Wal-Mart. I came in this morning, sprayed the starting fluid and the thing fired up. Problem solved I thought, drove it around a little, shut it off , started it back up nor problems. So I let the car sit (inside in the warm) the rest of the day. Went to start it this afternoon and it just turned over the same as it had earlier. ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGG. Sprayed it with starting fluid and instant start (probably not even half a turn!!!!!) Drove it home - car performed flawlessly on the 30 mile drive home. Shut it off, temperature is actually warming up to near 50 degrees right now at 10:00 pm. So I go back outside a few minutes ago - no start just turning over again. A little hit with the starting fluid, instant start. What the heck is wrong with this car? If it were a horse I would have shot it by now just out of aggravation.