1996 E300 D Starting Problem-need help
Hello everyone!
I have spent some times reading posts on this forum, but still can't seem to find a solution to the problem that we have. We just bought this baby about a month ago with 140k miles on it. It ran perfectly. Infact, we drove it from Chicago back to Dallas/Fort Worth and it was a manificient automobile. Fortunately for us, the problem only surfaced when we got back to home. Here is the problem.
My drive way has 2 inclines, one is slightly @ 5 degree and one is very slopy @ around 25-30 degree angle. When I park the Benz heads up on the 5 degree angle incline, it would not start if there is less than a 1/4 of fuel left in the tank; on the 30 degree slope, it would not start at all even when I have a full tank of fuel. It doesn't matter how long I crank it; I had tried it for a long time before, charging the battery twice and jumping it, still wouldn't help. It seems like the Benz couldn't get any fuel from the tank.
Whenever this happens, I have to push it down on a flat surface and it would start after 2-3 of 10 to 20 seconds of crankings. The Benz runs and drives fine, plenty of power even though it was not a turbo engine. I can even drive it up and down inclines without any problem, just that when I park it head up for an hour or so, it wouldn't start again.
Whenever we go out with friends, our friends always made fun of our benz because we had to park it head down on any slopes/inclines.
By the way, there is a small fuel leak on one of the fuel lines going in the spin on oil filter ( which I haven't replaced yet). Could this leak be the reason why all the fuel was drawn back into the tank and created a huge air buble in my fuel system when it was head up on a slope. I think it is the line going from the fuel filter to the shut off valve. I couldn't seem to find any picture/diagram of the fuel lines for this particular model.
I am planning to order some O rings from Fastlane to remedy the leak.
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