The weather the past two days is well below freezing. My otherwise well starting 240GLE auto B23F (189,000km) now dies after a monentary startup. It starts right away, then stumbles and dies within a few seconds. Cranking the engine results in a poor re-start (20 to 30 cranks minimum) and a horribly rough idle for about a minute, during which time feathering the throttle barely keeps it going. After that it runs great.
I spent the morning going through the archives on this issue, and it seems there are as many possible soultions as there are list members. I do intend to try to sort through them, but thought I would ask the list if, given the specific symptoms I have described above, there is a good place to start.The weather is snowing and blowing, and the less time I have to spend under the hood the better. I understand that it could be the fuel pump, coolant temp sensor, AMM, ECU, etc.
Tonight when I start the car I will disconnet the AMM if its a hard start, to see if that is what the problem is.

I cleaned the throttle body last month.
There are month-old plugs, wires, cap, rotor.
New T-belt, and ign. timing checked 2 weeks ago.
Injector cleaner though the system one month ago.
Car turns over normally.
Up until freezing temps, car started and idled beautifully.
Looking forward to your responses in order of checking priority.

TIA
JD
Fort St. John BC

Water in the gas? Try a can of dry gas additive. Check the fuel pressure; if it's low (<35 psi) fuel might not be atomizing out of the injectors when the temp is low. jp

My 82 K-jet did the same thing. Turned out to be the injector seals were old and leaking.

Mario

This couldbe the problem. I do know that number two injector is usually covered in a very slight coating of oily dust, very noticable when the other injector bodies are clean. Could be there is a bit of a leak which allows dust to stick to the body.
It was about minus 7 C tonight (just below freezing) and the car started normally after sitting for 8 hours, so I have not been able to diagnose anything at all. I will try again in the morning, as I will be dipping down to minus 15 tonight.
Thanks
JD

JD,

A quick test is to spray carb cleaner on the injectors and see if the idle changes. If it does the injectors are leaking. Also spray by the intake manifold.

Mario

Perhaps your idle motor is sticking?

I have ordered a new throttle body gasket and will remove the assemble fully and clean it out as soon as it arrives. Could be the problem, as when I did the recent clean-up, it was done in-situ, so I may not have got everything as clean as I should have.
JD