I have an 88 240 that is currently not running due to what I hope is a bad air mass meter (2nd one inside of 2 years) probably my fault for not spending the money on a new one, hard to justify the current cost for one though. Anyway, since the car is laid up for awhile I would like to try to track down a problem that the car has had for as long as I have owned it which is about 5 years. The car has 160K on it. Here is a description of the problem:

When the car sits overnight or a couple of hours in cold weather it starts right up on the first turn of the key. It seems that the colder the outside temp the better it starts in the morning.

If the car is shut off and immediately restarted (within 10 to 15 minutes)it will restart well.

The problem occurs during the time in between, if the car sits for a couple of hours after being driven. If the gas is not applied when starting it takes a condiserable period of time to get the car started (10-12 seconds) Applying the gas helps, but it still takes 4 or 5 seconds. After the car is started it runs very well and displays no other signs of a problem aside from an occasional hesitation if the throttle is applies to quickly.

Perhaps the strangest part of all is the way the car seems to adjust to the seasons, what I mean is that during the summer if the temp drops to 60 at night that is enough to have the car start well in the morning, but if the temp. tonight in the middle of March was to be 60 overnight the car would never start. I can think of no logical explanation for this.

Over the past couple of years I have done several minor things to remedy the problem with no success. I have replaced the Fuel Pressure Regulator, Installed a different AMM, cleaned the throttle body, new check valve in fuel pump, new wires, cap, rotor and plugs. Just tonight I replaced the coolant temp. sensor and cleaned out the IAC per the instructions in the FAQ. I would really appreaciate any other suggestions on how to fix this problem. Thanks as always.

Greg N