I purchased an 88 300 TE with 272 k miles on it in August and its been fine for me until recently with the cold weather. It won't start but gives every impression it wants to. Plenty of crank and a sounds like its ready but won't hold the rpm s. When I was finally able to get it going the temperature outside had risen significantly but the car felt like it was running on 3 cylinders. My mechanic, who's not a big Mercedes guy, seems to think that a block heater should resolve the problem but that assumes I plug it in at every stop. I noticed that a cold start valve is an available part but don't have a clue. Maybe just a tune up? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. By the way, it will remain cold in these parts of Idaho until April.

A block heater is not necessary and would be a PITA. You really need to seek out a mechanic who understands the Bosch CIS fuel systems. You could have a cold start valve problem, but I rather doubt it. The failure rate on that circuit is very low. Wilthout having the car in front of me, I'm suspecting a faulty signal from a temp sensor or the car isn't operating off of the computer for some reason. I'm sure your mech has taken care of your other cars, but it isn't fair for either one of you to ask him to diagnose this car.

Post Script: Thank you very muck for posting exactly the year, make, and model of the car you are asking about. One of the pet peeves of the professionals on this site which sometimes means no answer to the question is yahoos who insist on keeping that information a closely guarded secret. One of the pros here always asks:" Is this A Ford or A Chevy."

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

Thanks for the feedback. Appears I may have found a local familiar with these systems. We'll see next week when he gets to it.

Good luck, and it would be nice if you post the answer.

Peter

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

Still haven't gotten it to the mechanic he's very busy. So I've been making an attempt to look under the hood and noted that the Breather Hose to the air filter is barely attached to the manifold and the thin hard plastic tubing (vacume hose?) which attaches to the bottom of the Breather Hose is broken and brittle. Last but not least, the Air Intake Hose is split in half. Think any of this may have an impact on the car's inabilty to start?

By the way, where does that thin hard plastic tubing go? I've been tempted to pull the entire air filter housing to see but until it stops snowing or I tow it to the mechanic I think working on it under the current scenario seems a bit masochistic.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Air intake hose makes no difference, but hoses to valve cover are quite important. See
Whats going on?

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Kent Christensen
Albuquerque
'07 GL320CDI, '10 CL550. '01 Porsche Boxster
Two BMW motorcycles