106 Diesel Starting Probs

106 Zest2 1.5D, 2001 Reg, 50000 miles.

Car has become dificult to start on a morning. On a normal morning
will take two/three turns before it catches (used to start on first
turn when new) and if it's frosty (like this morning!) won't start
with out a shot of Easy Start up the air filter. Car runs perfectly
otherwise. I have never had a diesel before so am a bit lost when it
comes to fault finding but I am begining to suspect the glowplugs -
would anybody like to confirm/deny my suspicions.

Q's:How long do glowplugs last, How much roughly are they, Should I
change all of them at once, Are they easy to change?

TIA
Dave

 

Dave, Glowplugs can last anything from 1-5 years, replace them all at once.

It is most definitely your Glowplugs, and try to avoid easystart, it can
cause engine damage.

If you are feeling a little strapped for cash, remove each one in turn, and
try it against the battery terminals and see if it glows, or check the
resistance with a multi-meter.

GSF car parts are very cheap for these, do not buy Halfrauds home-brand, I
had some of these last 6months in a Polo SDI - The Bosch replacements
outlasted the car.

Andy

 

It could also be air leak/ingress. Any air in fuel at low temperature
normally needs lots of cranking. Check all unions, esp around filter
housing. Put on vaseline and see if it improves. If you have a priming bulb,
try squeezing it till hard.

Alec

 

Thanks for the info guys,

I am an electronic tech by trade so checking the resistance won't be a
prob. Any idea what sort of resistance I should be looking for? Do I
need any special tools to replace them?

Will also check for leaks (I presume you mean the fuel filter?)

Easy Start is the only thing that'll get it going on a cold morning! -
I know it's not ideal (I didn't even think you could use it on a
diesel until I read the can) but it'll have to cope until it gets
fixed properly (which hopefully will be rather rapidly).

Cheers Dave

 

Bugger all. Certainly no more than an couple of ohms. You would probably
find it easier to check the current - my plugs take 8A each.

Wouldn't have thought so but copperslip the new ones going in. Buy decent
plugs and you won't have to swap them for ages and ages by which point
getting them out can be tricky.

 

First thing to check is that the plugs are getting a 12v supply, and that
the timer keeps them on for long enough (about 10sec i'd imagine from cold).
If they're the same as my 205 each plug should be drawing about 12A if its
working correctly (or 48 if you hook it up whilst all connected).

If you have to change them, its not hard. Take the nuts off that hold the
wires. The undo the plugs with a spanner and twist them out. Easy peasy!

 

Easy Start is great. Unfortunately, engines become addicted to it and after
a while won't start without it. I jest not.

Rob Grahm

 

Please check the Followup-To: line before you respond to the garbage
postings - or better still, don't respond at all.

You've been tricked into replying to a garbage post with the followup
set to an unrelated newsgroup, news.admin.net-abuse.email, instead of
the one where the posting originally appeared. This causes a copy of
your garbage post, plus your reply, to appear there, and not in the
original newsgroup as you may have expected.

If you'd like to learn more, please come to the
news.admin.net-abuse.email newsgroup, where we discuss ways of curbing
email spam.

In any case, please don't respond to the flood posting forgeries!

 

Q's:How long do glowplugs last, How much roughly are they, Should I

According to http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/ they're £8.50 each.

 

The voice of "Greg Samson" drifted in on the cyber-winds,
from the sea of virtual chaos...

The forgeries in your group are the product of an entity collectively
known as "Dippy" to us NANAE users. His latest attack consists of
posting Forgeries to random groups, with the *Followup-To* header set
to "news.admin-net-abuse.email". If you simply reply to these posts
you'll become part of his distributed attack on our newsgroup.

Because of this latest wrinkle NANAE has become flooded by these
"What The F***!" posts, none of which are as easily filtered out as
the tens of thousands of the Sporgeries a day we usually get:

http://groups.google.com/groups?num=50&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=Hipcrime&btnG=Search

If you must respond to these posts please be kind, and only reply to
your own news group...

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Robin Graham"

Helluva bang on the piston and might bugger the rings.

 

I've heard of a few valve clearance adjustment problems with the 1.5D
engines resulting in poor starting.

My old AX 1.5D suffered from poor starting at about 45,000 miles, checking
the glow plug system, injectors etc showed up nothing. Then when revving the
nuts off it for its' first MOT some time later an ominous noise started!

Adjusting the valve clearances with the appropriate shims solved both
problems, and it continued to give good service until I flogged it at 87k.

 

Following my last post a Googe here
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?h...&lr=&q=shims+valve+clearances+tud&btnG=Search
found this from "Sean" in 2001:

Thanks to everyone who helped me understand and eventually fix the
cold start problem I was having with my Saxo 1.5D (TUD).

For other folk's benefit, so that they can search for my solution if
they need it, here is what the symptoms, problem, solution was:

Symptoms:

* diesel engine requires a lot a cranking in cold weather
* glow plugs working fine
* battery very good
* no air eaks
* injectors good
* injection pump good

Problem was:

* inlet valve clearances were tight (actually in my case they were 0
or even VERY slightly) negative. Starting was difficult because this
compromised the compression, especially so in the cold weather. If and
when it did fire, then it ran quite well. Presumably this was because
the piston (rising) velocity is so high when it is running,
compression can be achieved quite well even with a VERY VERY small
leak due to the inlet valve not closing properly. The slighlty poor
closure of the inlet valve would be more significant with the lower
piston (rising) velocity when being craked with the starter motor.

Solution was:

* simply replace the valve shims with the appropriately reduced sized
ones to return to the specified inlet valve clearance.

* TIP: don't bother, just don't bother trying to remove the shims with
the camshaft still in place. Haynes manual (spit!) says it can be
done. Removing the camshaft is dead easy anyway. Just be sure to lock
all the TDC markers in place.

Result:

* Now starts & runs perfectly.

 

And the people of news.admin.net-abuse.email (where you posted the
reply) need to know you killfiled the bozo in alt.autos.peugeot
because???

William R. James