Cold start problems W210

[PeterE320Cdi]

For the last 5 days I have been having trouble starting my car in the morning. It is taking 7 or 8 tries until it starts. In the time I have owned the car it has always started first time every time, as they say in all used car adverts .

During the rest of the day the car starts as normal. Each morning the first time I try the engine sounds like it catches picks up slightly then stops, every try after this it just turns over with no sign of life until it final starts.

Any ideas for things to check?

Thanks, Peter.

 

[television]

For the last 5 days I have been having trouble starting my car in the morning. It is taking 7 or 8 tries until it starts. In the time I have owned the car it has always started first time every time, as they say in all used car adverts .

During the rest of the day the car starts as normal. Each morning the first time I try the engine sounds like it catches picks up slightly then stops, every try after this it just turns over with no sign of life until it final starts.

Any ideas for things to check?

Thanks, Peter.

This sounds like air in the system,,are there any air bubbles in the pipes around the filter

 

[BlackC55]

Could be the injectors leaking off too??

 

[Dieselman]

Ditto either of the above. Look for air in the plastic pipes and have a leak of test performed.

 

[PeterE320Cdi]

Thanks for the replies, I wonder if it could be linked to the gunked injectors described previously:

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=46659

Could be that cleaning some of the gunk out the way was not the best move, I had best get the gunk sorted asap and hope it sorts out both problems.

 

[skemball]

If the fault has started 'out of the blue' i would suggest ignore the injectors as that type of build-up would occurr over a period of time.

 

[television]

Do not forget the return to tank is equally important for air leaks,,, do check around the filter

 

[PeterE320Cdi]

This has now been sorted with a new fuel filter housing and some fuel pipes.

 

[welkinridge]

I had the same problem with my E 320 CDI recently. I had the problem solved by my local garage, not I may hasten to add a main dealer. The car is a 2001 model and has done about 100,000 miles.
I quite suddenly found the car difficult to start when cold. The engine would catch and then stall. It then took a long wind before the engine would start and then all would be fine. On one occasion the battery nearly died and I only just managed to start the car.
The first thing the garage did was to change the battery. This helped as the engine turned over quicker and I was no longer in fear of being stranded in the middle of nowhere, but there was still a problem, it still took a lot of winding to start.
In the end there were two faults. The first was that all but one of the glowplugs were burnt out and the second that there was a small leak on the high pressure fuel pump. This meant that the engine had to turn over quite a bit before there was enough pressure to get proper fuel injection into the cylinders and as the glowplugs were knackered by the time the fuel arrived they were cold.
Changing the glowplugs and the fuel pump has solved the problem.