Problems starting my car in Park

706 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by augapfel, Jan 20, 2010

Curacars

Discussion Starter · Jan 20, 2010

Hello guys,

I've a lot of troubles with my car, a 300TE from 1989.
For the last few months my car started stalling when the engine is cold.
Even though I live in the Caribbean and normal tempratures are 30 degrees celsius.

For some reason the car stopped working all together a week ago. Funny thing is that the car still starts when I put it in Neutral. I used to started in my car in Park.

A friend of mine suggested it might be the voltage overload protection relay. I have checked that and found out that one of the two 10Amp fuses on it was broken.

Saturday I changed all the sparks, air filter and replace the broken fuse. The first time I tried to started was a direct success. Normally I would have to keep starting for like 2 seconds, this time it was maybe a 0.1 of a second.

After reving up the engine and running it, I went for a test drive. After 2 corners the car stalled. Started it right away, could get home but that was about it.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

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augapfel

· #5 · Jan 20, 2010

Your car has (at least) two problems. The easiest to address is the Park/neutral safety switch. This switch is mounted on the left side of the transmission and when it starts to go bad you'll get the "start in neutral only" symptom you describe. Then again, the same symptoms can occur if the switch has already been replaced and improperly adjusted. Or if the shift linkage bushings are shot allowing slop in the linkage. Is there slop in the shift lever?
The extended cranking/hard starting problem is a different issue and almost certainly related to the blown fuse in the OVP relay. It sounds like the cold start injector isn't working and you'll need that even in the Caribbean. Where exactly are you? My wife and I married on the beach in Anguilla. What market is your car from?

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augapfel

· #7 · Jan 20, 2010

The way to "clean out the slop" in the lever is to replace the bushings. No other options. There's a current thread on this very topic.
As for the starting/running issue... Your car's engine has 6 fuel injectors, one for each cylinder, to spray fuel into the engine during normal operating conditions. When the engine is cold, however, additional fuel is necessary and that is supplied by the 7th injector, the cold start injector, which is located aaround the middle of the intake manifold. It is *electrically* activated and supplies fuel to all 6 cylinders for a short time following engine startup.
ICV is something totally different -- Idle control valve.

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