Cold Start Question

[londoner1]

110 HDI 2002 ESTATE

Folks,

With the recent cold weather and me not having to start the car in over 2 days, however when i recently started it, the exhaust let off white smoke which disapperaed in seconds, is this normal?

The car started after a few cranks and all was well after that.

[steve_earwig]

Hopefully it's just blowing condensation out.

[Doggy]

You can get it from unburnt diesel too.

In a former life I used to help get shunting locos started of a morning. After a bit of a charge, couple of cans of easy start, a few MINUTES of churning over, with charger/starter's help, you'd get one of the 8 or 12 cylinders to fire, then masses of white smoke, another cylinder or two join in, darker smoke, job done, (apart from disconnecting charger from battery, coveniently located between the cyl. heads at far end of engine).

Guess: a). How you get in there to do it? b). Did we stop the engine again? c). Who was the lucky apprentice?

Sorry about the lengthy story, but I think its likely you saw the same sort of thing. Might indicate a failed glow plug or two, but if it doesn't happen regularly, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Welly]

With mine last winter I'd left it a couple of days when it was minus 2 deg or more and upon starting it sounded rough (it was missing on one cylinder) this I put down to ageing glow plugs but being as the HDi can manage without them I left it alone.

Anyway, knowing what was going on I went round the back to look at the egg sauce and even though it was missfiring only a touch of light blue smoke was evident which quickly cleared.

I'd say white schmoke was unusual

Keep an eye on things, maybe get the coolant bottle "sniffed" (if you dare)

[mbell666]

It'll just be unburnt fuel, nothing to worry about aslong as it clears up once running (which it sounds like it has).

[londoner1]

All,

Thnaks for your response, out of curiosity, can anyone tell me how many glow plugs are in the hdi an dhow much will it cost have them replced (parts and labour).

ta

[Doggy]

There's 4 of them, don't know on replacement cost.
It's very unusual for them to fail and an HDi will generally start without them anyway, so I wouldn't bother unless you're convinced you need to.

[Garry]

My 01 HDi (90) has been a bit sluggish starting over the last few weeks (probably since the dark mornings and evenings) i.e. it's been taking a lot longer to turn over.

This morning was the first real cold snap where I live and it took me ages to fire up. Any ideas?

[steve_earwig]

Turn over or fire up? I mean, is it cranking slowly or turning normally and just not firing? If it's the former then maybe you battery could do with a wee charge, if the latter perhaps, now that they actually do something*, there's a problem with your glowplugs.

*I guess they're doing something, it was -6 this morning here.

[Garry]

Turn over or fire up? I mean, is it cranking slowly or turning normally and just not firing? If it's the former then maybe you battery could do with a wee charge, if the latter perhaps, now that they actually do something*, there's a problem with your glowplugs.

*I guess they're doing something, it was -6 this morning here.

Sorry didn't make it clear, its taking longer to fire up. Took at least 6 attempts this morning

[steve_earwig]

I know it's often said HDi glowpluds aren't all that important but that would be your first line of investigation. What's the air temperature in the morning and how does it start in the evening?

[Garry]

Last night was down around 0 or maybe a little bit lower.

Evenings are better but it's just not as instantaneous as it was