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My ageing 2.1 TD estate has began to rattle alarmingly on starting. It's as if all the oil has drained to the bottom of the engine. After about 30 or 40 seconds it starts to smooth out and sound normal? During that 40 second period idling is irratic. Any clues?

Top end or bottom end? Any smoke? I seem to remember the 2.1 has the added luxury of an oil pressure light, does this stay on for a while?

Top end rattle. Oil pressure light goes out straight away? How accurate is the oil level gauge? Mine goes to just below max . Any ideas will be gratefully received!

Oh and no, no smoke !

Well, what interesting vehicles we drive. The unearthly rattle on starting is due, according to a local garage, not to a lack of oil but to a lack of diesel! Apparently a bladder is collapsing? I know the feeling! Does anyone no what this bladder may be?

I've no idea He doesn't mean the hand priming pump bulb thing? I woukdn't have thought so but if the pick up strainer in the tank is blocked the vacuum from the pump will collapse it. Not a cause though, just a symptom.

Umm, the dash oil level gauge is not to be trusted, use it as a guide but it's no substitute for using the dipstick.

Ahh, that was what my second engineer must have meant when he kept calling me a dipstick. He was referring to how reliable I was. Makes sense now.

I must admit I felt like a dipstick when they called me on the phone! I just made noises like I knew what they meant. I will ask more when I get the car back.

I won't trust the dash gauge from now on. Back to the old method! Thanks for your replies.

Well it would appear you were right! The bladder was the priming bulb and changing it made no difference at all! If anything it's worse. So the car goes back Monday morning and is not coming back til it's sorted!

That points to the pick-up strainer, it could well look like this:

(courtesy Poddack here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7355&p=78870&hilit=strainer#p73031)

An update on the rattle...if only it had been that blocked strainer Steve...it was the fuel pump...its given my wallet a serious bashing and still haven't got the car back. Oh well.

But did they actually check the fuel pick up above? the collapsing bladder points to a good suction from the pump but having nowhere to go because the pick up's blocked - the weakest point to 'give way' to the suction is the rubbery bladder.

Oh crap I'm with Welly though, why would the pump make the primer bulb collapse? Unless it was drawing way too much fuel I suppose. Pug were very quick to condemn the pump on my 2.1 but they were wrong. So I guess it's either you get your nice reliable 2.1 back how it should be or you get a free new fuel pump

It got worse, a tale of woe. Local garage couldn't repair pump. Car sent to fuel injection specialist. 300 pounds to diagnose problem, even though we already told them what problem was. Original estimate for repair rose from 700 to 1300 pounds, although after much negotiation and my own garage sourcing parts bill dropped by 300. The car was in their workshop for a fortnight at this stage. Then called to say job done, boss just taking it outfit a test drive. 10 minutes later called back. Car broke down on test drive. Reason? New cam belt they had just fitted...slipped! Car towed back. Another week later car returned and all appears ok. However distinct lack of apology or goodwill. So I won't be recommending All Trans of Colchester to anyone!!

Jeez - as much as I dislike crawling around the engine bay of my car, this is one of the reasons why I do do it. There's only 1 garage that I trust 100% and it's not anywhere near where I live.