No idle, white smoke, but good compression?

[austinite]

CAR: 1987 300e w124 (automatic) 184,400 miles
PROBLEM: Starter cranks, but engine won't start.

(I apologize if I'm hogging the forum with a new thread, but I have new information that might change the focus.)

1st : My sister, the actual owner, just informed me that the car eats oil. It doesn't leak it, it just doesn't like hanging out in the oil resevoir and goes somewhere else.

2nd : After four weeks of shooting blanks, the engine finally reved for as long as I kept the pedal down. I could get it past 5000 rpm, if I wanted. It died as soon as I lowered the rpms to around 1000, i.e. no idle.

3rd : The entire time I was reving the engine white smoke was coming from the tail pipe.


The smoke would make me think head gasket, but the dry compression test was good: 168, 158, 163, 173, 178, 168. I am not an expert, so maybe I am assuming this incorrectly.

Could there be a connection to the mysterious oil consumption, the white smoke and the inability to idle?



(For those with similar problems see previous thread "is it the fuel distributor?" for background.)

[austinite]

To Mr. Murphy,
Thank you for you suggestion about the flywheel position sensor. I do not mean to blow it off, it just seems very difficult to get to and test, and with the smoke as a new symptom, I want to see if the concensus has changed before diving in (almost literally) :) .

Thank you,
david

[Robby Ackerman]

White smoke is water/moisture. Blue smoke is oil. It could be nothing more than condensate in the oil or exhaust system. After the car has been driven for 30 - 45 minutes do you still have white smoke?

When you pull the codes what numbers do you get?

Why do you say the engine is not leaking oil?

[austinite]

Q: After the car has been driven for 30 - 45 minutes do you still have white smoke?

>>>Unfortunately I can't get the car to start so I'm not sure.


Q: When you pull the codes what numbers do you get?

>>>I was told a car this old (1987) doesn't supply codes.


Q: Why do you say the engine is not leaking oil?

>>>Not leaking onto the ground, I should have said. It seems to be consuming oil rather quickly, but not directly to the ground.

[Robby Ackerman]

Q: When you pull the codes what numbers do you get?

>>>I was told a car this old (1987) doesn't supply codes

Bummer. All the 124's I've seen have a small black box in the vicinity of the battery that allows one to manually read the codes. Though I must admit I've never looked under the hood of an early 124 like your '87.

Re the oil consumption, if you don't have blue smoke that's a good sign that the engine isn't burning it and could indicate that you have a leak. There is, or should be, an aerodynamic tray under the engine that oil can accumulate on. Some common areas for leaks are the lines/connections for the oil cooler, left side of the engine's front and rear corners between the head and the block, valve cover gasket .... The difference between the low and high mark on the dipstick is two quarts. Don't add any oil until it gets to the low mark. Add only 1 qt and see if consumption moderates.

Check the flywheel position sensor. In June my neighbor's car quit running and displayed your same symptoms, and that's what it was.

[borj]

I had the same experience with my 124 260E. Im not really sure if its the same engine block/design as your 300E. But here's how I fixed mine.....

Someone told me that my engine had a design flaw with the valves and the valve seals. It was angled so everytime it slides, a small gap was created on one side. Because of this oil can seep thru the seals and get burned in the chamber. Same as yours, the engine was consuming/losing oil without any signs of leaks. Eventually I had a hard time starting because the plugs were fouled up. I think Mercedes realized this flaw because when I had them replaced, they have a special tool in removing and replacing the seals. It took no more than 1 hour to replace them all (i think it only took about 40 mins).

Then recently, I also experienced hard starting the car....revving it up to 5000 and eventually die when I let go of the pedal. I cleaned the distributor, replaced the plugs, and replaced the governor switch(but i recommend trying to clean it first). Now the car is running smooth.

Hope this helps...... :D


Enrique Borja
Manila Philippines