Well I've been hounding this forum of wisdom for the past month of new Mercedes ownership.
Briefly, my 300CE was a sod to start when cold and had no power when pulling away. I also had a problem with my ABS light which only stayed on when the battery was fully charged (which meant rarely as the starting problem took a lot of juice due tohaving to make twenty or thirty attempts to start the car!). Seemed to be no problem with the brakes but (again) the power problem meant I didn't get the chance to take it fast enough to need ABS!
WELL... I took it to the garage in Hailsham (a great guy named Nigel!). He had the car overnight and although the fuel filter was somewhat dirty, it still didn't perform. So, he got an autoelectrician in who did a fuel pressure test. I think he might have also checked the fault code or ecu because what he found was that there was a blown fuse in the protection relay apparently! Its located behind the battery under a plastic cover against the bulkhead. As soon as this was changed, the car came off 'limp home' mode. It seems like the previous owner hadn't coped this either as he had replaced a fuel pump unless of course that had caused the problem in the first place. The mechanic reckoned that it might have been caused by being incorrectly jump started or that the battery had been put on the wrong way round!
Anyway, the two days problem hunting, testing and fuel filter change cost me about £175 inclusive but man, the car starts first or second time and is plenty powerful enough although now my fuel economy isn't as good as it was
So hopefully, this problem of low power, bad starting and abs light might be of help to someone else!
To all those wonderful members who offered help and advice - Thanks!
