I rcently became the owner of a 79 240D with 110,000 mi on it. I purchased it from the original owner.From day one I noticed that the headlights and dash lights were rather dim but I attributed that to the age of the vehicle. Recently the battery charging light would flicker and go out if I raised the idle slightly with the dash adjuster. Last night, something strange happened. After running the "rocket' for about 40 miles, I parked it and could not turn it off with the key. I used the emergency shut off under the hood and that worked. When I used the car later, it started right up but would not shut off with the key. On the way home, I noticed that the headlights would get brighter and then dim. This happened a few times. I know very little about cars and am on the island of Maui. I wondered if I should take the car to a service station, or seek the assistance of an auto electricial person (ther are 3 listed on the island). Any ideas whats happening ?
Tim

The car uses vacuum to shut off so an electrician won't be much use. The system is simple and tons of info are available in the archives.

Do your door locks still work? They are operated with the same vacuum. Some times just shutting the car off in the other state of lock will allow the car to shut off. Since lock and unlock are two separate systems a leak in the unlocked state may not be a leak in the locked state. The locks are the common leak but thye AC also uses the same vacuum and the element on the injection pump itself can be the leak.

__________________
Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician