ugh. my Son brought our old 240 home from College, and we've given him a 940 wagon to take back to school, another story entirely...

meanwhile, the 240 (1987 240GL sedan w/ B230F) decides the very next day it doesn't want to start. pop hood, look, hmmm. oil all over front of engine, looks like its coming from the camshaft seal, ok, thats no biggie, its due for a major service anyways. topped off the oil (wasn't down that much) and try and stat it, it cranks and cranks, and occasionally pops gently, but no crank. can smell gas vapor near exhaust pipe, and when I pulled a plug it had a bit of gas on it (not soaked) but looked otherwise pretty clean and in good shape.

This particular 240, we're the original owners, its got a LOT of miles on it, around 400K, but has been well maintained its whole life. The rotor and cap look fine, the wires and hoses are all in good shape, etc.

you figure the timing belt might have slipped a few so it won't run? I'm trying to avoid using one of our AAA tows, we've already used one this year for a DOA car in the driveway and would rather save them for actual on the road emergencies.

 

Well, remove the oil cap and watch the cam shaft while someone cranks the motor...if it doesn't move, the cam belt is broken. I broke one at a stoplight, idling and you would not be the first to have one break in the driveway. Sons aren't always forthcoming in detailing issues they've had with cars...if you can get hold of him ask if there has been any recent history of hard/no starts. Your car doesn't have a crank sensor but it does have a Hall sensor on the distributor...doesn't fail too terribly often unless molested. The ignitor a/k/a ignition module can fail and cause a no-start. It's located on the driver's side inner fender up by the headlight...looks like this...

It also wouldn't hurt to check the D cap and rotor for condensation and/or carbon tracking and check the coil wiring.

 

yeah, he said it was hard starting lately when it hadn't been driven for days, and he wasn't driving it much around school, he bikes to school instead. once it had been run that day it was good to go all day. apparently there was an incident involving rather low oil the week before, too, but he topped it off before the 350 mile drive home, and it wasn't more than a small amount down when he got home. when it was running the day before it wouldn't start (and when I'd first noticed the oil keak) I did at least check the oil cap while it was idling, it was free of any foam, and was being properly sucked down so the PCV or whatever is working.

I'll get my volt meter out and check the coil for all the right juice, I think I remember how to do that (its been awhile but I'm a computer engineer, and understand electricity reasonably well)