30 minutes between startup

[Ben Longden]

Greetings all.

A strange situation with the W140 400SEL 1992 .

Ive had her off the road for most of the year, having some major work done on her, such as new steering components, a new rear drivers wheel bearing and suspension issues as well being sorted.. probably around $5000 of work.

I brought her home and the mechanic said she was developing a strange issue; you could start her from cold, and run her, or take her for a drive.
But if you stopped the engine, there was NO WAY she would restart in under 30 min. You could crank the engine till the cows came home and nothing.

I noticed a leak from the pumps at the rear drivers wheel and had that hose replaced as it was leaking fuel. I thought there may have been low fuel pressure at the engine, but this seems not the case.

Plugs seem fine.
Fresh fuel put in.
New spark leads 50,000km ago.

Any ideas?
B

 

[CowleyStJames]

Fuel evaporation?
Have you checked for fuel at the injectors during cranking?

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Does the engine have a distributor cap and rotor if so condensation could be building up in the cap residual heat from the engine will clear the issue in 20-30 mins? A new cap and rotor will solve the situation my 300TE suffered from this at circa 70k miles hairline cracks in the cap being the problem

 

[Ben Longden]

Hi Malcolm.
A new mechanic with a scope discovered the main distributor that takes the power from the coil before senting it to its partner does have a crack in it. This was discovered by the waveform being ot what it should be.

So thats been fixed...

We went on a 400km afternoon cruise and she behaved perfectly.

But now, she is refusing to start full stop. and if she does start up, she coughs and splutters... and the engine stops if you dare touch the accelerator.

Could this be the same problem?
(I ask because the car is sitting in my garage.. and don't fancy her breaking down on the road to the mechanic)