Hi everyone,

I am a newbie here, and have owned a w123 230E for about 6 months. The car is an absolute joy to own, but has recently developed a very odd problem where the engine refuses to shutdown even after I remove the key from the ignition.

I have done search for this and found lost of threads concerning similar problems, but its almost always with diesels and usually caused by a vacuum leak. My car is petrol, so I expect the problem is electrical and not vacuum related. Here are the symptons:

• When I try to shut down the engine it doesn't shut down, and I can pull the ignition key out and it just keeps running for as long as I care to wait. The only difference is that with the ignition switched off it idles at slightly higher revs - at about 1000 rpm rather than than the usual 750 odd.
• If I then open the drivers door whilst the engine is running on like this (key out of ignition) a couple of the warning lights illuminate on the dash. I think its the battery light, the fuel warning light, and the handbrake light - the ones you usually see illuminated when you first switch on the ignition.
• Now this is the really odd one - when I close the drivers door again the engine stops! This happens every time. I am still using the car at the moment, and when I go to shut down the engine I just remove the key from the ignition, get out of the car (with the engine still running), and when I close the drivers door after exiting the car the engine shuts down!

If anyone can offer any advice or suggestions about what they think may be causing this I really would be very grateful. I'm just stumped!

Many thanks for your help!
Charles

__________________
'82 230E
'84 Porsche 911