Now that I got the idle speed dialed down to 750 rpms from 1200 thanks to some of you guys here who responded, I'm wondering if there is another issue with my car:

When I start the car cold, it cranks for a couple of seconds, catches, and then slowly comes up to rpm if I don't touch the gas. Like it hesitates for a few seconds and then smoothens out. I can gas it to speed up this hesitation process, but technically I'm supposed to start it without stepping on the gas, hence we have a problem somewhere!

If its hot, I restart and its fine pretty much right away (maybe a second or two after it starts).

If its hot and been sitting for a while, I need to crank it for several seconds before it starts, and then it behaves like its cold, it hesitates and is not smooth for a few seconds until it clears out and then it is running ok.

My question is that I was thinking it should idle faster when its cold and then settle to a slower rpm when hot. It doesn't seem to do that (idle speed the same hot or cold).

There is a sensor in the front of the engine with two prongs, which I figured it the temp-time switch for the cold start valve. I disconnect the plug and nothing happens engine running cold or hot. I check with voltmeter and it seems to be sort of connected when I check for connectivity (gives me 0.6 instead of 0.0 for full connectivity). I took it out of the engine, tried to heat it with a blow dryer and I see not much difference in connectivity between the two pins. How am I supposed to test this thing (am I doing it right) and could it be the culprit?

Any other ideas guys?

Thanks much and if it wasn't for you guys I wouldn't have been able to get my newly added rpm guage working and my idle speed dialed down!!

-=>Raja.

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1983 MB 190E, bought from Germany and shipped to the US in 1986.