Engine cuts out after 10 minutes
 

First, a big thank you to this forum which has helped me greatly in the past. Now please do it again!

Have W124 ´91 300CE. Car always starts easily, even after several days´non-use. However, after running fine for about 10 mins, the engine just dies - and that´s it! I can get nothing out of it at all for at least 40 minutes. Then, usually, I can get the engine started, but unless I keep the revs at around 2000, it just dies again. Similarly if I try to put it into gear (auto shift) the engine just dies.

After about one hour, I get the engine going again and, although it runs a bit rough for a few minutes, I can usually get into gear and away. Thereafter, for the rest of the day, even if I park up for several hours everything is absolutely fine. Car starts perfectly and runs without any roughness.

Clearly this is something to do with a component that reacts to the engine warming up - perhaps changing the mixture, ignition timing or whatever. But what is it??

Please help on this as I am now living in Spain and it´s really hard to explain this to the Spanish Mercedes dealers - even if I trusted the local one which I don´t after he blew up my radiator!

All suggestions gratefully received.

Phil

when did you last replace your fuel filter? that is a good
and cheapest way to start hunting!

I had a similar problem w/ my 300e before. what was causing it was a bad fuel filter. You might want to check into that or you might also have a bad overvoltage protection relay. These parts are relatively cheap.

Engine cuts out...
 

Thanks to Joel and DesertRat.

As you say, this is a cheap(ish!) item, so it´s certainly worth checking, but I suspect it may be more complicated because of the repeatability of this problem. It ALWAYS happens about 10 minutes after starting - just about the time that something or other would be adjusting the mixture/timing or whatever, I suspect.

Another factor I have discovered is that, if I drive the car every day, it doesn´t seem to happen - only if it´s been left for a coulpe of days or more. Even more puzzling!

Still, I didn´t believe that resoldering the joints on my cruise control would fix it, but it did!

Cheers,

Phil