shock and brake musings, cold start question, '90 200 qw

[Dave Michael <dave.michael@quantum.com>]

Thought I 'd fill in in on a few observations I've made after installing new 
shocks and brakes on my 90 200 qw.

Shocks: I (had a mechanic) install 4 spax shocks I bought from 2bennet. 
According to the mechanic, they don't fit perfectly because both the tube and 
rod diameters are smaller than OEM, so things don't self align as they go 
together. Once they are together, it's all ok. The strut tower plastic cover in 
the engine compartment also doesn't quite fit because the adjusting nuts stick 
up higher than OEM. As far as performance goes, I am still fooling with the 
settings. I have the fronts set 5 clicks from full soft, and the rears are set 
on full soft still. The front seems about right, the rears definitely need to 
be adjusted. On my last car (identical car, wrecked), I installed boge pro-gas 
(the variable damping rate ones) on the front, and of all things, monroe 
sens-a-trac (made in Belgium, more expensive than the boge's) on the rear. 
Overall, I think that combo was a better set-up for normal street use. the ride 
was better, and the control was sufficient. I will still play with the spax 
settings though.

Brakes: I installed  a new rebuilt caliper on the rear ($125.00, foreign 
autopart). A word of warning: if you have a 200 wagon, check to see if you have 
vented rear rotors (I have mentioned this before). If you do not, then when you 
order parts, pretend you have a 200 quattro sedan; All the books think you have 
vented rear rotors, but only the 20v 200 wagons really do. Also, the calipers 
on the quattro and non quattro 200 sedans are the same BUT THEY ARE REVERSED 
LEFT AND RIGHT. If you can, take a picture of the caliper you are replacing 
with you when you go to get the new ones. On the front brakes, I installed 
REMSA gold pads, which so far, seem quite acceptable. Much less dusting than 
Repco/axxis metal masters (which I think suck), no squeaking and they stop OK. 
I put ATE pads on the rear, which I think are dusting too much.

Now, for a question. Up until yesterday afternoon, we have had very warm 
weather her in new England (~60-70F). Yesterday, it dropped to ~35, and when I 
went out to the car from work, it first started and died, then wouldn't catch 
at all, then started an died a few times, then finally started and ran fine. I 
checked for error codes, there were none. I have not yet checked the intake air 
temp sensor, which is my first suspicion. The other would be the could start 
injector or the warm up-regulator. Any other suggestions of things I should 
check?

Dave
90 200 qw 143k
87 milano 3.0 147k
86 190E 2.3-16 117k (wifes car)