Intermittent no start at cold - please help
 

Hello Friends,

I have a 1984 400 SEL that have started to missbehave and I´m hoping for some input from You all to help me. The last 2 weeks the car has not been possible to start twice. The first time I cranked the engine and 1 cylinder fired but engine did not start. i did a lot of cranking without start.

The second time I cranked for about 10 times and about 10 seconds each crank and the engine did not fire once. Both times I checked the plugs (wet and smelling gas) and cleanéd the distributer cap and rotor (both look fairly good).

Both times I was able to start the car after leaving a heater under the hood for about 2 hours. The spark is not very good (yellow) when cranking but once the car has started it runs fine.

On both occasions the car had been sitting for a couple of days and the weather here is around freezing and mixed rain and snow. Once I have it started up its easy to restart for the rest of the day.

Any ideas were to look?

Many thanks.

Mikael Westerberg
1984 500 SEL
Vanersborg Sweden

Anyone that have ideas?

Best regards/ Mikael