Start, die, Start again, runs like a charm
 

My car developed a new problem, I'm not sure why, but I think something needs to be tweaked.

What happens is if I start the car after it's been sitting for a while, it will start and then the rpms will drop right down to zero and the car will die. If I start it again, it will pick up just fine. I'm suspecting an air leak somewhere in the idle control valve, and just not enough time for it to kick in on the first time when starting.

Can anyone suggest anything? It's a 1985 190E 2.3 8vlv

Also can anyone tell me if this car gives fault codes? I have been trying to find a "SURE" answer to this for a long time now.

xp

In a post a little further down you mentioned something about having just done surgery on an OVP - resoldered.

I wonder if maybe it's time to just buy a new one?

this is before I did the OVP

I didn't drive the car yet after the resoldering, I will in about 2.5 hours when I get out of work

but dont' tell anyone I was fixing my OVP at work :)

xp

Well, it sounds to me like a faulty fuel pump relay, but then I would say that because exactly this has happened to me (didn't necessarily always restart though), and the relay was the problem.

You could be right.

Just a week or two ago I had no fuel pump relay at all, well it was sitting in it's spot, but the fuel pump was jumped to the electrical centre and it ran as soon as the ignition was turned on constatnly. I took out the fuel pump relay, resoldered all the joints on it, put it back in, plugged the fuel pump where it should be as opposed to where it was, and it worked like a charm, now I'm not sure but I think I had the same problem before I did this, when the fuel pump relay was out of the equation. If I give it a tiny bit of gas it won't die, just picks up a bit poorly, I'll do a fuel system flush again, wait for my new parts to arrive and see what happens from there.

xp

Fixed it
 

Well that problem is solved

turned out I had too much tranny fluid which aparently caused too much stress on the engien when starting up, so I drained what I didn't need, and now the idle control valve needs to be adjusted cause that's not working right either, or at least it does not kick in fast enough, could be due to leaks.

xp