BMW Repair: Mercedes Wont Start, coolant temperature sensor, throttle position sensor

Question
Hello,

I have a 1993 Mercedes 190E w/ the 4 cyl. 2.3L engine. After driving the car home just fine, I attempted to restart the engine on my driveway and it wouldnt fire. The starter engages and catches just fine, and every once in awile the engine fires briefly, goes to about 1000 rpm and just stops. The longest I have been able to maintain the engine running since this problem started is around 3 seconds.

Rain has complicated my situation slightly and I havn't been able to spend much time under the hood. I was able to remove the air filter, depress the air regulator and I smelled fuel. I suspect there is either a problem with the ignition system (This is not an EI car, it has a distributor so the problem could be a bad coil?), perhaps a loose timing belt, or perhaps a fouled plug (being it is a 4 banger, could one bad plug foul up the whole works?)

I did not notice any unusual driving characteristics on the last trip I had with the car, it seemed to be producing average power. Any assistance or suggestions you can provide would be MUCH appreciated! Thanks

Answer
I don't work on mercedes so therefore i can't give you an accurate doagnosis.  The fact that it starts then dies could be a number of things such as a idle stabilizer,  clogged fuel filter, bad throttle position sensor or airflow meter, vacuum leak, coolant temperature sensor an ecu problem or about a dozen other things depending on what type of fuel injection system this car has.  The best bet would be to plug the car into a computer to pull the codes, other than that, test everything you see.  The car would not even start for a fraction of a seccond without spark (BTW all cars have coils).  The timing belt out of adjustment would cause it to run rough or not at all, a fouled plug wouldn't affect it enough to kill it.  I would start by checking the air flow meter and the throttle position sensor cause thats your best bet.  
-cheers