Another 190E problem
 

There seem to be a rash of these problems, I guess it's the weather, here's what my car is doing.

One cold morning my 1987 190E 2.6 would not start, I left the car and came back later and jumpstarted it, it started fine, I took it to a mechanic who tested the alternator and battery to see if they needed replacing, his equipment said they were fine, I was able to start the car yesterday and today, the temp was about 29 degrees, after about 1 hour of fast driving, the car died on me while I was coming off an exit, I put it in neutral and it started fine, at a stoplight, it went dead again, I restarted it. I managed to make it home without the car dying on me, can someone please tell me why it's doing this.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

two possibilties

1. overvoltage protection relay=check the fuses on top of it-if faulty- replace it/them. location of relay is behind the battery,and behind the plastic cover-to get an idea of what the realy looks like -go to the fastlane section of this website and do a search on the online catalogue-you will be able to see pictures of the the relay.

2)faulty fuel pump relay.

good luck!

Thanks Sunil, I was checking the EClass owner's bible, since the 2.6 engine in the 190E has some similarities to the 300E's engine, they are both M103s and the book gave me the same diagnosis you came to, possibly the overvoltage protection relay.

I will look into replacing it, thanks again

yup, on a non-MB car I would say it's a fuel pump. On MB-who knows??

My daughters '90 190E 2.6 did the same thing many many moons ago, it wasn't getting fuel. I found a relay behind the battery, it's one that has a locking device on it to keep it in place (a twist knob on top).I replaced the relay behind the battery...it still didn't work. I took the cover off and found a small relay on the board that would enable the fuel pump. I fashoned a tiny wedge of wood to slide into the relays frame to get me to the dealer.
Took it to the dealer and they worked on it from 7:30 AM till 7:00 PM, I stayed there being it was a hundred mile one way trip, I'd go into the shop about every half hour to see what was going on. The mechanic had help from every other mechanic in the shop. I saw every kind of meter and piece of test equipment possible on the fender at various times. He even had another mechanics 190E pulled in next to it and was swapping parts and comparing data. The service writer came out several times and apologized for taking so long. At the end they claimed that there was a burned wire in the loom that goes from all that control stuff behind the battery over to the left front fender area. I've since looked for rewrapped looms and repaired wires to no avail.
Not too long ago it quit on her all of a sudden while driving along. But different to your problem, it would'nt start, battery was too low. Everything checked OK (bat & alt), I drove until I finally proved the alternator was intermittent, was going to swap it out till I found out (through this forum) that the brushes were an easy fix.
Hang in there , you'll get it, it's a good tough little car.

Ernie