Thanks for the replies. I forgot to note in the first post that this is happening after 2-3 glow cycles.

It's happening with the block heater plugged in or not. I suspect the BH may have gone away as I don't notice much difference in warmup time in the mornings after it has been plugged.

Has never had any bio in it since I've owned it (one year) and I doubt prior either (owned by elderly gentleman).

I have seen the fuel starvation behaviour before as I had a 240d that did this if you parked it for more than a few days. But it did it at all ambient temps. Lots of cranking but no excess smoke on startup.

I am wondering about an air leak as well. But I have never seen one that magically appears at extreme low temps. The difference between how it starts at -15C and -20C is huge.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22