As the title mentions: my 1988 190E starts for 2-3 seconds then stalls.
As I understand it, this is because the cold start injector gives it enough fuel to start for a couple of seconds. It is obviously not the ignition, or the fuel pump or fuel pump relay because I have checked all, and it does run for 2 seconds or so.
so I have narrowed the problem down to where the fuel delivery is failing. It is going into the fuel distributor but is not getting to the individual fuel lines. Thinking it was either the fuel distributor or the EHA valve, I replaced both.
I am on my 3rd fuel distributor now and it is still doing the same thing.
If somebody has a diagnosis for this please help. I have been struggling with it for 2 months now.
Other observations to narrow it down:
-No fuel pressure on the fuel return line.
-No fuel flow/pressure through the fuel distributor to the injector lines.
-Adequate fuel pressure into the fuel distributor.
-Adequate pressure to the fuel pressure regulator.
-Adequate pressure to the cold start valve.
-Fuel pressure regulator opens at about 90 psi with compressed air.
-Replaced: fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel distributor, fuel injectors, EHA valves, ignition coil, rotor, cap, wires, spark plugs, and valve stem seals!
-Car had not been run for 4 years.
I have searched all over the internet for answers to this question, but have yet to find a solution.
There were 2 problems which prevented the car from running.
1. The EHA was blocking fuel in the fuel distributor, the cause was dirty contacts on the sensors (crank position, and idle air valve). After cleaning and reconnecting these, the car worked perfectly.
2. Vacuum leaks, I am still patching up a few vacuum leaks, but they will prevent a car from running properly.
Another problem that went mis-diagnosed for months due to a scarcity of information about it. The Vacuum modulator valve on the transmission was bad. The result was transmission fluid being sucked into the motor, fouling the spark plugs and just about everything else in its path.
As a note, if you are seeing plumes of white smoke coming from you tail pipe this is the cause of it. White smoke is distinctly different from steam, so make sure you can distinguish the two. In my case so much tranny fluid was being sucked into the motor that it was dripping out of the tail-pipe.
also, the vacuum modulator valve is not easy to get to, you must drop the transmission to get to it. In my case I cut through the metal body from the inside by the gas pedal to get to it. The reason being, the valve must be adjusted for proper shifting, so it needs to be accesible as you test the vehicle.
The final lesson I learned. Leave the expensive parts on your car alone, repair and replace everything around them before replacing them. 2 fuel distributors was expensive, and there was probably nothing wrong with the original one.
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