We've been kicking this around in club@mbz.com for a few days. A recap:

Our '99 C-230 has difficulty with the first cold start of the day in what passes for winter here in Corpus Christi. It runs horribly rich, stumbles and farts, until something seems to click and it settles into its normal high cold-idle. The exhaust smells as if something bad might be happening to the catalytic convertor.

The dealer replaced the ECM under a Tech service bulletin. It didn't help. He said this was the first time they know of where the new ECM failed to correct the problem.

A few days later, they said they'd contacted MB USA and were told that the "solution" was to use mid-grade gas. It seems, they said, that the winter premium fuel "reformulation" somehow confused the cold-start process.

I say that's a crock of hooey.

The high-compression or supercharged cars we drive were built to perform optimally on premium. On mid-grade, the engines will have to rely on proper function of knock sensors and other safety devices to cool things down at high revs under heavy loads before the engines self destruct. At best, we will not get the performance for which we paid rather dearly. At worst the engine will suffer premature deterioration and even damage.

Should Mercedes drivers really have to choose between smooth trouble free starting and the performance and durability we thought we were getting when we chose the Marque? C'mon, let's find a better answer.

Guy

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Guy J. Racette
1985 500SL
1999 C-230 Kompressor
Proctor-Silex toaster