Thanks to J.M. for the detailed response.

The symptoms have changed since my original post, now not quite mapping to the bulletin that J.M. kindly clipped.

Current situation

1. cold starts - normal

2. hot starts - normal

3. warm starts (say more than an hour after shutting down but before engine completely cools) - 1st crank engine spins but does not fire up. 2nd crank engine starts, stumbles, rpm shoots up to about 1000-1500 for a sec, then settles down to the normal 500-600 range.

The car otherwise drives well as always.

Read in the archive that OVP & Throttle Actuator are common failure items on the W124 / M104.

The OVP is easy to replace DIY... but if it is really the culprit will engine crank at all ?

I won't be able to replace the Throttle Actuator myself, but as it is a big $$$ item would like to know if this is something that is possibly at fault here.

Thanks again for all advice.