>more cold start problems - scary HELP! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

jsmith · #1 03-10-2003, 04:01 PM

i had posted before about my cold start problems which have somewhate abated but seems not to have gone away. this weekend brought a 30 degree swing in weather from warm to very cold this morning. i drove my car saturday when it was in the 50's no problem. next time i started it up was this morning when it was 19 degrees and of course it faltered as i expected it to and i just kept cranking and gave it a little gas since that seems to help when it happens. it started, however, it was misfiring but after about 30 seconds the misfire went away. there remained a clattering sound which seemed to gradually diminish so i drove slowly and the noise continued to diminish until after 2 miles it was completely gone. it is now running normally and i started it up again after about 7 hrs and it started up and ran normally. this is the first time that this has happened. i am thinking of having the injectors cleaned via a power cleaning service where they inject something like techron directly into the throttle body. i don't know if there's anything else that i should do at the moment - any suggestions would be appreciated!

#2 03-10-2003, 04:50 PM

Check the auxiliary air valve and cold start injector.
Forget the injector cleaner via solvent injection through the throttle body, it never reaches the injector's internal parts. Pretty much a waste of cash. We looked at 321 repairs invoices/test results that used this procedure for e-test failures without any appreciable improvement to emissions.

jsmith · #3 03-10-2003, 05:46 PM

i'm wondering what the clattering was - could it have been a stuck lifter?

#4 03-10-2003, 06:09 PM

Yes, especially in cold weather, parts shrink, sieze, oil thickens. Mine occasionally does the same thing,( in cold). I cant remember if yours has hydrolic or mechanical lifters, I'm thinking hydrolic.