91 300CE-24 questions

[jebaril]

A couple of questions: it seems to me I have read somewhere (maybe Barrett’s book?) that coupled with the M104 engine, even the early variety (90-92) in the coupes, was a 4-speed auto tranny that started off in FIRST gear, as opposed to the M103 sixes, where the car began (sluggishly) in 2nd gear, unless you stomped on it. Is this true? I can say that my ’91 coupe does NOT start of in first gear, unless I floor it and even then takes a couple seconds to downshift into first.

Also, it seems to me like my auxiliary fan is on all the time, no matter what the ambient temperature and no matter what position I have the climate control in (off entirely, EC or full on AC). Now that it’s nice enough to put all the windows down and open the sunroof, I have noticed this. Does this seem odd?

Thanks in advance.

[Robert Goodwin]

I have heard something similar about some transmissions starting out in second, but it did not apply to any of my cars so I did not retain the info. Hopefully another reader will be able to come up with it.

I am going to assume that you are talking about the blower that provides cabin air as being your other issue. The following test proceedure was developed by someone else but should work for your car:

>The way to test the blower and controller is to hook up the red wire to
> battery positive, the black wire to ground, and then use some small batteries
> to provide the positive voltage to the yellow wire (ground the negative side
> of your test battery to the car). If it runs slow on a 3 volts (2 AA
> batteries or equivalent) and fast on 9 volts (I used a 9-volt radio battery),
> then the fan and controller are good. Smack the fan motor housing while it is
> running to see if there are any loose connections. If the running is erratic,
> then you probably have worn out brushes. If it seems to start running with
> difficulty, you probably need to lube the bearings. If it runs without any
> voltage on the yellow wire, then the contorller is bad. Otherwise, look for
> problems back towards the PBC.

The wires are in a plug above and to the rear of the brake booster. Smacking the motor will not be possible unless you have dug down to it.