89 190E 2.6 Needs Ether to Start
 

There's an '89 190E 2.6 around here (not mine) that needs ether to start, but runs fine once it's started. If you don't use ether, it just cranks and won't even cough. Use a little snort of ether, and it starts right up and runs fine after that. The car has 170-some thousand miles and looks to be in good shape generally, but the history of it is unknown.

Any idea what could cause this problem?