300E-24 won't start

[B Hall]

Hello,

My w124 300e-24 has recently developed a problem where it won’t start. I’ve been checking on here for some ideas but nothing seems to have worked and I’d appreciate some extra help. As I work overseas, the car is parked for up to two months at a time with it having to be jump started sometimes due to a flat battery when I get home.

When I would first try to start after returning home, it would run for maybe five minutes then stall. It would start again and run for another five minutes and stall. After the third or fourth time of trying, the car would start and run for maybe half an hour and then just die while driving on the road. Other times it would run perfectly for the duration of my holiday.
It now has stopped completely and will not start.

These are the following symptoms so far that I have found.
At key on the electric fuel pump can be heard running under the car. I have also opened the fuel supply pipe to the fuel distributor at the engine and switched on the key to confirm that petrol is actually getting to the engine which it is.

I opened the fuel supply pipes from the distributor which go into the head of the engine and they are all injecting petrol.

I have removed the spark plugs and cranked the engine over. They are all sparking.

The car had a new distributor and distributor cap fitted two years ago.
I’ve checked all fuses are ok.

I have also replaced the OVP relay but to no avail. The fuse is also good on the OVP relay.

I did remove the fuel distributor to check it and found a pool of petrol in the inlet manifold which I dried out. At this time I also checked that the spark plugs were dry as well.

On a final note, if you keep cranking for a long period it does sometimes make an attempt to start but never does.

At this stage I’m out of ideas and I’m beginning to think it is a sensor, harness or ECU problem or perhaps some relay I'm unaware of but I don’t where to go next. I’m hoping that jump starting the car hasn't damaged some delicate electrics.

Any information would be a great help.

Thanks in advance.

Brian.

 

[kth286]

to start with, leave your battery disconnected, when you know you are away for a prolonged time. Just undo the negative lead from the battery.

need to give some more thought to your actual problem, although saying that, condensation in distributor cap can a problem.

As a test, next time, before you start the car, why not remove the dist. cap and wipe inside. see how you get on and report back.

 

[television]

I too think it is worth wiping the rotor and inside of the cap

 

[grober]

There are several possibilities. Always difficult to judge at a distance.
1. new distributor and cap-- were they pukka MB Bosch or BERU- did you renew the rotor arm?

2. with engines sitting for a while you get moisture in the distributor body once the engine warms up- moisture migrates to the cap causing shorting

3. the fuel pump relay is 2 stage first stage priming on ignition switch on ---second stage requires an engine running signal to keep fuel pumping no signal engine is running = cuts out.

4. you might have water in the lower part of your fuel tank which is drawn into the system sometimes

5. the EZL ignition unit which fires the distributor coil is faulty or the coil itself-- they can work cold but fail on heating up. [ test with pipe freezer mix will sometimes restore function]

6. you have a faulty ignition switch which sometimes works and sometimes not.

7. you have a faulty alarm/engine immobiliser

 

[B Hall]

Hello,

Success!!! Your advice was correct. I removed the distributor today and found some moisture and condensation. Also I noticed the points were lightly corroded. I cleaned the rust with a piece of sandpaper and used a hair drier to dry out the distributor and distributor cap. It fired up immediately. I left it running for a while but no stalling. I went for a drive and no stalling either so fingers crossed. My assumption that the distributor and cap were new so therefore should be OK was a mistake. Regarding the brand, I couldn't see anything stamped on it so suspect the garage that installed it didn't used OEM or Bosch parts. If the problem reoccurs i might go a new Bosch part.

Once again thanks very much for the pointers.

Brian.