Does your cruise control work? If not, that might be confirmation of a bad stop lamp switch at the brake pedal. If the switch is good, you may have a defective throttle actuator. (both codes you referenced can be associated with a defective throttle actuator)

Like Bob, I'm not the best diagnostician but maybe the above thoughts will give you a few more ideas to follow up on........

Coolant temp sensor, Yikes! How weird.
I picked up a brake light switch today for $12, since this ALWAYS happens to this car just when I hit the brakes, 2 miles or so after a cold morning start. Won't be able to get the stop light switch in before Thursday, and will report back.
Thank you to all for your input.

WOuldn't it be nice if it is that simple?

Yes, Cruise works perfectly.....

Pull up a starting wiring diagram and figure out what should be getting 12volts, what is a load. Make sure you check these things:

1. Good battery
2. good connections that arent dropping volts where no volts should be dropped.
3. Starter solenoid
4. Igntion switch
5. neutral safety switch
6. corrison on any connections
7. check for opens, shorts

__________________
1986 300SDL, 211K,Dealership serviced its whole life
1991 190E 2.6(120k)
1983 300D(300k)
1977 300D(211k)

Thanks for the input. I will install the brake stop-light switch by the weekend, check the contacts in the bulb housing, and certainly try to find the Neutral Safety switch and look at the contacts. I guess that will be the next item to replace.

For Neutral Safety Switch instal info go here:
Replacing Neutral Safety Switch in W124

I don't have link, but here's additional info from post by Arthur Dalton...
The switch is tight, but straight foward to replace.
It is mounted to the trans with 2 10mm bolts. The bolt holes are oblonged for rotational adjustment.
The only tricky part for first timers is the plug has a white locking ring on it that requires you to turn the ring to the unlock position in order to unplug the harness..and there is also a pin in the sw. acyating lever that has to line up with the hole on the shift arm to lock that into proper location upon reassembly..but that is pretty much evident once you are down there.
Adjustment is correct when you have a starter engagement in both N and P and back-up lamps in R.
You may also want to take a look at the shifter rod rubber bushing for wear while you are there ..they are usually worn and simple/cheap to replace.

###

thanks for that link!

I replaced the brake stop-light switch, but have not had a cold enough morning to know if that helped. I also realized that the neutral Safety Switch is out of adjustment ( I can start in neutral if I push the shifter forward a bit). I will adjust the switch on Friday, and be able to do a rolling start if I see LIMP mode again. Will advise.

UPDATE:
The short story; ASR light and LIMP mode, ONLY occur when the outside temp is below 20 degrees F, and only in the first 5 minutes of driving, usually occurring when I come off the throttle, or hit the brakes. If I first let the car warm-up for 10 minutes, I can drive off with no problem.

I have cleared codes and pulled the same codes repeatedly; 8 blinks on pin #8 (idle speed control system at upper or lower control stop or LIMP indicated), and 14 blinks at pin #14 (closed throttle position contact switch).

I have Replaced the brake light switch;
Checked wiring harness (looks solid under the black cover at the engine front);
Replaced the wrong coolant temp sensor (replaced single contact sender instead of the 3 wire sender which feeds the computers);
Checked that I do have the newer part # for the OVP relay;
Looked all tail/brake lamps;
The Neutral Safety Switch does need adjustment, not done yet...

Co-incidentally, the car is in the shop today, as the Air Pump commenced to making a terrible racket, and must be replaced.

Thanks for any further thoughts.

You wrote
"The short story; ASR light and LIMP mode, ONLY occur when the outside temp is below 20 degrees F, and only in the first 5 minutes of driving, usually occurring when I come off the throttle, or hit the brakes. If I first let the car warm-up for 10 minutes, I can drive off with no problem."

Does make one think of temperature sensor / sender. Ah, but there's more than one.

Sorry to hear about the Air Pump, but better to have it checked before its clutch freezes and wipes out serpentine belt.

Here are two links regarding Air Pump Clutch that may save you some money.

w124 Smog Air Pump rebuild - ShopForum
w124 Smog Air Pump rebuild

94 E320 Air Pump Issues....What to do? - ShopForum
94 E320 Air Pump Issues....What to do?

Doing a search on Air Pump Clutch will provide enough reading for today. Take note of post dates regarding parts prices.

I wonder if you could have a bad wire harness on the throttle actuator. Perhaps when everything is cold and stiff, you have some internal shorting, then, after some warm up the wire harness loosens up and no longer shorts. If I remember correctly the codes you are getting point to a throttle actuator problem. Kind of a long shot but you never know.

J. M. van Swaay

__________________
1994 E320 Wagon, 230,000 miles
1995 E320 Sedan, 106,000 miles
1994 E500 Sedan, 79,000 miles