New to forum! Just "inherited" a 190e, and it doesnt start...

[itsdave]

Hey everyone!


Im Dave, im 22, in college, and broke as a joke! But enough about me...


I recently (today) received from a friend, who unfortunately lost his license in a DUI, a not at all new, and poor taken care of "baby benz" (as I’ve heard to some people refer to it). Anyway its a 1990 190e 2.8 v6. It used to drive fine, until he parked for about 4 or 5 months with no one using it at all. Now it doesn’t start.

What I do know about the car, it has 140,000 miles on it, and I'll assume that during the last 40,000 or so it hasn’t received any maintenance. So I know a full tune up is on the order. After a snowstorm it had some minor flooding, carpet smells awful... but I don’t think water was any higher than then 1/2 way up the wheel. The battery is dead, so I tried to give it a boost. The engine turns over, and I if keep holding the ignition on it seems to start working under its own energy. But as soon as I let go of the key it dies.
I don’t want to take it to a shop around me, because they're all very shady, so unless I can get this pile to start and drive for about 70 miles to get to my shop back home, I'm gonna have to drive my mechanic out here. Is there anything you guys can tell me that I can look at/change myself to get it to start? I’m fairly handy in general, and somewhat well read on the workings of a car, but pretty inexperienced so if you guys can point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful

On a side note, the cars suspension is also pretty shot, obviously If I cant get it to run the suspension is the least of my worries, but if it does fire up again I will want to get stiffened up and back to somewhat normal because at 60 that car would float like a sailboat in choppy water. Can someone tell me an estimate of how much including labor that would run me? If it’s too much I wont take the car, so any input would again be very much appreciated!

So thanks in advance, if I get this running Ill definitely start frequenting this board. I’m kinda falling for the car's lines and if it proves to be reliable I might even consider restoring it back into shape...