Hi there, I do want to thank you all for the help that I have gotten so far but my 240 wagon still has issues. It's a 1993, 160,000 miles. My exact trouble is this... When I go out to the car and it's normal temp for here, say 45 degrees, it will crank and crank and won't want to start. A touch of the throttle and it fires right off. If it's REALLY cold out, say 15 - 30 degrees, it starts like a CHAMP, no throttle needed. When running, it works great, no power or backfiring issues. At idle, I do get a surge sometimes, revs up, down, up, down, and that's it. Nothing major. If I turn it off, try to start right up again, no problems. if I go into a store for eggs, come back out and try to start, I have to give throttle for it to start well.
I get no trouble codes, but I have seen the check engine light come on for a split second and it goes right out. Still no codes. So far, I have taken the idle air valve off and cleaned it, the throttle body off and cleaned it (it was DIRTY), and adjusted the switch on the side of the throttle body. When I pulled the switch off of the throttle body, there was fluid in there, like carb cleaner from perhaps when I was attempting to clean out the throttle body with it still on the car. I drained out the fluid and put everything back together and adjusted the switch properly and everything worked great. For a few days only. Then I was back to the same old hard to start symptoms. What in the heck is going on?! How can I check to see if the switch is functioning correctly? There are three terminals on it, what kinds of readings on them should I get when open, closed etc? What should the idle air valve look like in there when I take it off when the engine is cold? Closed? Open, cracked slightly open?
I remember hearing that you can pinch off the hose going to the idle air valve, and that it's supposed to tell you something...can someone fill me in?
The car has fresh oil, plugs, wires, air filter, fuel filter, fuel pump, and a clean flame trap.
It's driving me nuts, the car is GREAT other than this little starting problem.
Today it started, acted like it was 'missing' when I fired it up and after revving the engine it smoothed right out. Still no check engine light or any codes, fuel or ignition side.
Thanks for your help.
Scott