Frozen Fuel??

[Captain Jack]

I don't think my glowplugs are working... at all. I never see the the preheater light come on... ever, and it does take a few more turns to start in cold weather. Gotta be the relay on mine, the ground wire is very loose.

740... I wouldn't worry about it for now. It has to be the frozen fuel, with those temperatures. Our friends on the continent switch to winter diesel over the winter, which has additives to stop it from freezing. At -14, you'd certainly need that kind of fuel not the summer juice we have here.

[steve_earwig]

I thought modern fuels had all the additives not to do that sort of thing any more I had this problem with my heating oil last winter, the repair man said made some comment about cheap crap from, umm, the former Soviet Union...

The old trick was to put a small amount of petrol in your diesel to lower the freezing point. The other one was to light a fire under your fuel talk but I don't think you'll be going there...

[DaiRees]

A quick search of 'tinterenet reveals that standard diesel will start to gel at about -15C altrough some sites say it's more like -10, so I'd say that's almost certainly your problem, surprised there doesn't seem to be more reports of this on here though

Aparently in more organised countries you can get winter fuels (as already mentioned) that don't gel 'till around -20 and also additives that lower the gel point. Home made solutions seem to be to add kerosene at a ratio of 1:10 with your standard diesel or to pre-heat it somehow, also already mentioned!

[steve_earwig]

...kerosene...

Aka paraffin

[jasper5]

I wonder if this problem is down to a low battery or a glow plug problem.
I live not all that far from Manchester (30 miles) and we had the low temperatures as well.Our 407 HDi has started first time every time, but my Expert van HDi has been difficult to start needing a jump start and a longer than normal turning over of the engine.I replaced the battery and my van has started easily ever since.
One thing I do with the cold weather is to turn the key until the glow plug light goes out 3 or 4 times then it starts right away.

[DiscoPol]

UPDATE......

went out today about 11 when the temperature was up to -1c had the booster pack fully charged up, connected pack and gave the key 4 turns to let glow plugs do their stuff, on the fifth turned it over and after about 15 seconds it fired up on 2 maybe 3 cylinders at best ran very lumpy for a good minute and a half, i kept the revs up above 1500 to keep it running and now its running fine ,

been out for the obligatory drive to charge up a tired battery, a nice grandad paced lap of the M60 ,

and im back home thinking of taking the battery off tonight and giving it an over night recondition on the charger, now that i have the booster pack back to charge after leaving it in the boot of my other motor for the last fortnight and so it having no charge left in it when i needed it yesterday


heres hoping a good charge on the battery and a slightly milder next few days means i wont be having this problem again, for the 3 or 4 days prior to it not starting the car had only been doing short journeys and low speeds so i think that had a fair bit to do with it.

[poddack]

No problems here with my 2.1TD estate, in fact I'm having to pick up work mates who own petrol cars. I just love the low down grunt.

[Doggy]

I just love the low down grunt.

and the rest of your work mates?

Sorry! none of my business

[poddack]

LOL, I think they're managing alright.