M103 ('89 300CE) difficult starting solved

[volosong]

Just want to pass this info onto others who may have the same "trouble".

Several months ago, my 1989 300CE (M103 engine) developed a characteristic where it was extremely difficult to start. It would start up fine, in the normal fashion, but once I let up on the gas pedal, the engine would die. It became progressively worse over time. Same problem, if the engine was cold or warm. I leaned to get really good with the brake/accelerator pedal dance. Once the car was on the road, it ran fine. Then one day, I discovered that when starting, if I "gunned" it up to about 4,000 RPMs, then it would run fine, (usually).

I have my car serviced religiously by Enrique at MB Motors and had him take a look at it. The first two times I took the car to him, he couldn't fix the problem and did not know what caused it. He adjusted this and that, but the problem always returned straight away.

I was this close (holding hand up with thumb and index finger about a half inch apart) to selling the car and purchasing a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Finally, last Friday on a day off of work, I took it in to Enrique again and told him that it just had to be fixed and it was getting really, really "bad". His little computer showed no faults, so he started looking elsewhere. We took a look at the distributor cap, which was okay...but he didn't like the look of the rotor. It was really "chewed up".

After he replaced the rotor, everything is now fine! Runs like brand new again. Love that guy (Enrique)! I really dread the day he retires and am not looking forward to that day at all. Oh, he also told me that if I do go ahead and get a Highlander Hybrid to replace my truck and 300CE...that I should keep the 300CE anyway. He says it is in really good condition and "will never go out of style". At almost 210,000 miles, he says it is barely broken in. Hard to believe that it only had 75K miles on it when I purchased it from the original owner eight years ago.

Now, if I can only convince him to fix my cruise control.