Odd starting issue, '88 190E 2.6

[Duke2.6]

A few years ago my 190E 2.6 developed intermittent hard starting - long cranking time - both hot and cold. It became more frequent with time, and I finally ran an on-the-car test of the fuel accumulator, which showed that it had an internal leak and would not hold pressure. I documented the test and a destructive analysis of the original accumulator with photos that showed cracks in the internal elastomeric diaphragm in threads I started.

Starting returned to pretty much normal with a new accumulator that now has only about 1500 miles since it was installed. The car has about 85K total miles.

Lately both hot and cold starts require me to kick the throttle and bring revs up to 2500 to 3000 for a few seconds, to avoid stalling before it settles down to a normal 1000-1200 cold idle and 700 hot in neutral (It's a five speed manual.) No check engine light.

But this is the really weird part. Sometimes when I start it, the windshield wiper turns on despite that fact that I haven't touched the stalk. To turn them off I turn the switch to the first notch, low speed, then turn off, and the wiper parks normally.

Another odd thing happened for the first time last week. I stopped at shoe repair shop to pick up a pair of shoes, and since the car was visible from the store I didn't lock it. About 20 seconds after starting as I was moving out of the parking lot the OE alarm system started beeping the horn. So I shut it off, got out, closed and locked the driver's door, then unlocked it, and the beeping stopped.

It seems my car has become possessed by an electrical gremlin... anyone else experienced these issues? Any ideas?

Back during the warranty period I sometimes referred to it as the "Mercurial Benz" since it seemed there was some issue nearly every month. Fortunately it settled down post-warranty, but now...

Photo attached.

Duke