Hello again!
I was hoping a kind soul have some time to help me out. My wife got stranded again at work. There has not been any problems this winter until yesterday when the car had to sit outside in windy sub zero conditions. It ran fine to work but when we tried to start it after 8h it cranks, sputters occasionally and I think it might start but...no.
I'm leaning towards a fuel issue. Both pumps work and I put a new filter in last year. In tank pump is about 3 years old and I checked the hose for holes last year and we have not had any issues that points towards a hole in it but I guess it does not exclude it. I was thinking the sudden no start could be frozen fuel lines? There's not much gas in the car, just 1/8 above the red area and I've heard low gas levels could add to such a problem. If there's a freezing issue what's the best way, and fastest, of dealing with that? It's an unheated garage, I have a tarp over the car and heaters going but temp still just 30.

Thoughts?

After reading you guys messages I went for a multifaceted approach. I filled the gas up, put some more heet in, got some heaters running under the car while I worked under the hood. The IACV seemed a little stiff so I cleaned that along with the throttle body and MAF. To my surprise I found a mouse nest in the air filter box! After I buttoned it up I put in the newly charged battery and it fired up quicker than ever, it ran perfectly smooth.
What was the exact problem we will never know and I guess I don't really care, I'm just happy it works!

Thanks for your help guys!

Joakim
Minneapolis

I do not know about 240s, but 740s are known for fuel pick-up problems when fuel gets low.

Our '88 745 GLE had issues whenever the fuel got below 1/4 of a tank. We always kept the fuel up - after a few years we forgot about it and had another episode of poor running. We added fuel to solve the problem.

BTW - a tech told me that our car had a 240 engine, so we would have good luck with the car - which we did.

I did not find anything on this in the FAQ, but years ago I read several posts about this issue.

I also remember reading that this problem can get progressively worse, requiring more fuel to keep the car happy.

Is a low fuel level normal for your car? Or, do you usually keep the level up?

With alcohol in today's fuels, freezing is almost a forgotten problem.

Did you purchase fuel from a different supplier?

Check to see if your fuel provider has alcohol in their fuel.

Any bad rainstorms lately? - I spent 38 years on a Fire Department and I personally was involved in two cases where water got in gas station tanks and caused havoc with car's fuel systems.

Regarding the alcohol (ethanol) in the fuel:
Water and gas don't mix, but ethanol is miscible with both water AND gasoline.
This property of ethanol means that any water in the tank will have been taken out with the fuel from when the oil companies were made to add ethanol to gas.
And that's been a while now, so it should be unlikely that water is the problem.

Low levels on fuel can cause condensation in the tank. I never let it go below 1/2 tank in winter. You can try some "Heet", gas line antifreeze and water remover.
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aleekat,
Thanks for a quick response. I put some heet in after the fact and I'm guessing that is to late?

I would add some gas. Then you could try some starting fluid into the air intake to get it to start. Might be enough to get fuel flowing again.
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Jwalker and aleekat,

I got a few more gallons in there, I'll go and get some more gas, mmo and starting gas and see what happens.

Also I'm gonna carefully use a heatgun, as far as I know I don't have a gas leak. Wish me luck:)

You could try directing heat underneath or around the car. Look for gas leaks first and no open flames! Also, refill the tank as soon as practical. Maybe shuttling fuel to it using a gas can? Add more dry gas to the fuel or if you already have used the maximum specified amount of dry gas you could instead try adding Marvel Mystery Oil to the gas. Adding new gas and MMO got my 850 to start after the car sat all winter.