Originally Posted by Jeremy5848

My mechanic commented to me once that it was important to NOT start Mercedes diesels any more often than necessary. He advocated locking the car with a spare key and letting the engine idle while you [for example] run into school to pick up your kid. His reason for doing this was that the overhead camshaft will "drip dry" in its exposed position on top of the engine and so will have little oil for the first couple of seconds after starting.