1988 300SEL won't start - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

dannym · #1 03-01-2010, 03:46 PM

Hi all,
I just got a call from my daughter telling me her car won't start.
She said it ran fine when she parked it last night but wouldn't start this morning. She said it doesn't do anything, no noises, nothing. I had her turn on the headlights and she said they worked so it doesn't appear to be the battery.
Any ideas on what this can be? She lives kinda far and I need to head out there pretty soon.
Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks!

eurodiesel · #2 03-01-2010, 05:59 PM

Check if the lever is in park. it could be the neutral safety switch. Just some simple suggestions as it died without warning

pawoSD · #3 03-01-2010, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannym

Hi all,
I just got a call from my daughter telling me her car won't start.
She said it ran fine when she parked it last night but wouldn't start this morning. She said it doesn't do anything, no noises, nothing. I had her turn on the headlights and she said they worked so it doesn't appear to be the battery.
Any ideas on what this can be? She lives kinda far and I need to head out there pretty soon.
Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Headlights means nothing. My sister had the same thing happen in her 190E....headlights, but no start, start with headlights, headlights went out.

Battery had voltage but no amperage to push the starter....it was shot.

tinypanzer · #4 03-01-2010, 08:07 PM

Unless she is used to driving it, she probably did what my dad did first time he went off on a road trip - he thought he was turning the headlights out by turning the knob full CCW. As you know, that leaves a parking light on. My step-mom did it not two weeks later. Now they know better......

Have her hook it up to a charger overnight and try again tomorrow. Make sure whatever she left on is turned off.

If that isn't the problem, have her put a smallish C-clamp on each of the battery posts (after cautioning her about shorts!) and clamp 'em down. If it then starts, it's the battery terminals at fault.

pawoSD · #5 03-01-2010, 10:52 PM

I really don't think instructing a young female to put clamps on the battery is a good idea.

I see fire...explosions...acid everywhere, and a W126 burning in the background.

dannym · #6 03-02-2010, 08:19 AM

I don't think she would mess with the battery, even if I asked her too.

The car did start last night. I put it through the gears and it started right away. I didn't try it before going through the gears. I kinda wish I did.

Anyway I didn't see anything wrong with it. Hopefully it was just a glitch.

Danny

tinypanzer · #7 03-02-2010, 10:25 PM

Sounds like a neutral safety switch. It could also be that the bushings on the shift linkage have worn to the point of inaccuracy.

86560SEL · #8 03-04-2010, 01:27 AM

I have owned my 88 300SEL for over 2 years and it has done this only twice. I simply placed it in neutral and back in park and it started fine.

mak · #9 03-04-2010, 08:59 AM

its was little bush which caused no start in Park ,needed a jiggle until i replaced the bush never had any problems after that.
mak
3oose

dannym · #10 04-02-2010, 02:36 PM

So my daughter went and wrapped it around a pole.
Thank God she's alright.

Do you think it's fixable?

Danny

tinypanzer · #11 04-02-2010, 08:58 PM

Oh man, I'm glad to hear your daughter's fine but that really sucks. It might be fixable, I mean hell, anything's fixable if you find a body shop run by Russians or Poles, but I'm not so sure it would ever drive straight again. I remember this body shop in Chicago that was Russian and Polish and they were taking completely totaled cars and putting them back on the road again. Some of the work was very hard to detect, but still. Bent is bent. They sure were artists with those cars though, I was thoroughly amazed.

Honestly, if you've got the space, I'd just park it out back under a tarp and you've got parts aplenty for your next 300 or w126. If you can spare losing the rear legroom, you should try the 300SE. It's quite a bit more sporty than the SEL and accelerates better too. Of course, you could always find a nice 300E for which you now have a spare motor, but the rest of the car would be pretty useless to you.

Let me know if you decide to part her out.....

dannym · #12 04-05-2010, 08:31 AM

Yaeh I know, it's pretty bad.
The worst part is my daughter needs the car to get to school, from school to College classes she's taking, then to and from work. It's hard to get around where she lives since there's no bus service.

I wish I had room to keep it but I don't. Not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it. Not really looking to part it out but if anyone needs anything from it I may sell some stuff.

Danny

Hit Man X · #13 04-06-2010, 02:59 PM

Yikes, you can replace a car not a person.

If you get around to it, I am interested in the front seat leather skins if in good shape. Or just the pass side even!

samiam44 · #14 04-07-2010, 07:20 PM

Try starting it in neutral- the neutral safety switches ussually fail in park. We just went through this with a W124. No start either position. For a week, my wife would carefully put a wire in the B+ terminal and run over to the other side of the engine compartment, remove the start harness connection- and touch the hot lead to the terminal. Starts the car, then replace the connector.
She got some strange looks at the Mall with 2 kids, but was quite happy there was an easy work-around.

Michael

johnflight1 · #15 04-07-2010, 07:39 PM

Glad she is ok, we just lost a car the other day.My niece parked our spare car in front of the house(97 pont sunfire gt)in a very peacefull residential neighborhood. A retired usaf col drove his 2002 s500 thru it at 65mph. It was bent in half totally destroyed! Good thing I do not let her smoke in the car she went on the front porch to have a smoke or she would be dead.
The poor little car ended up on our neighbors lawn in pieces.
The S500 blew the aibag and had some rt frt repairable damage. They arested the guy for running from the scene making false statements and DUI. Never a dull moment! Now all I have left are my 3 benze's