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Not starting as well as it used to

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3K views 37 replies 7 participants last post by  156Chris 
#1 ·
My car always used to start pretty much instantly, but over the last week or 2 the cranking time is getting longer :( Once the car is warm though it does start as it always did.


The battery is only a few months old, so it can't be that. So I presume it must be the glow plugs ... any other options???
 
#3 ·
The glow plug light goes out within a second (as normal) ... if it was the starter motor would it make a difference if the car was warm?

I'm not going to even comment on your battery commment :p (re-read the OP)
 
#6 ·
I've done some more diagnostic on the car with FES ... it has been sitting on my drive for about a day and a half without being started ...

Before starting the car the battery was 12v, on first start it struggled to start, once it was running the battery was just short of 14v so the alternator would seem to be ok.

I stopped the car almost immediately and then restarted it and it stuggled again (slightly more so due to the battery being flattened from the just start)

I left the car running for a few minutes to get it slightly warmed up (to 40 deg) to a temperature where the glow plugs aren't active and the car started straight away.


One other thing though, the "water in fuel" indication from FES read "on" and "water in fuel (2)" read "present" (perhaps the otherway round) although there wasn't a light on the dash???
 
#9 ·
not when the car isn't running ... 12v is standard (it is 14v when the car is running)
 
#11 ·
I'm a bit gutted because this was a replacement of my last battery that I managed to just get it replaced within the last month of the original 3 year warranty, and unfortunately you don't get a new warranty with a replacement under warranty :(


So looks like I didn't get away with it (they probably found some shitty battery that had been kicking round in a warehouse for years) ...
 
#12 ·
voltage should be higher than 12.4, more like 12.65V for the battery to be fully charged(IIRC 12.4V corresponds to about 20-30% charge)...mine's about 12.35-4V and the car struggles in the mornings...get the battery checked and then it's easy....
 
#13 ·
I've got the new battery in and it does seem to be starting a bit better, although I'm still not convinced it is as good as it's always been but that could just be the cold damp weather we're having. Although interestingly the new battery is bigger than the old one do either they ripped me off with the replacement or I've had the wrong battery in for years!!!! It's just a shame that I've lost the paper work
 
#19 ·
The one I took off was 72ah and 680 starting, so a tiny bit underspec'd, the new One is 77ah and over 700 starting power
 
#16 ·
How do you do that?
 
#20 ·
Well I can (almost) conclusivly state that it isn't the battery as the new one was pretty much dead last night (after not using the car for a couple of days), therefore I must have a "leak" in power somewhere causing the battery to discharge when the car isn't running.

I've unplugged my carputer as an experiment, so I'll see if that is the problem ... otherwise I'm going to have to get the multimeter out and measure the current when the car is stopped.
 
#22 ·
Have you measured the voltage of your battery?
 
#25 ·
I checked my car tonight after work (when it had been sitting all day in the cold/wet) and the voltage was still 12.6v, so looks like the psu on my carputer is not switching itself off properly :( ...

I'm going to try my old battery back in and see if it's actually ok and take the new one back to halfrauds and claim I haven't used it


I'll see if I can do some more tests tomorrow :thumbs:
 
#27 ·
Nothing ... but it looks like the reason for my low voltage wasn't the battery it was because of a constant drain on the battery when the car was switched off
 
#29 ·
Yep, it maintained the voltage fine with my carputer disconnected (I'm going to try reconnecting it and see what happens ...)
 
#30 ·
So I reconnected it and the battery is slowly draining, so I attached the multimeter in "amps" mode and the M4-ATS PSU is actually drawing 100ma when it's supposed by be drawing less than 1.6ma when it's in "deep sleep". 100ma isn't huge but over prolonged periods this can't be good for the battery which is why I presume the original battery died.
 
#31 ·
Well even with a good battery the car isn't starting that well (was a real struggle tonight), however I've found one of Smaky's posts from the "other place" and he seems to think that

Smaky said:
On rare occasions split boost hoses or blocked air filters can stop these starting
... and I did notice a small split in my boost hose just above the battery, has anyone else had these problems???
 
#32 ·
... the saga continues ... I had a poke around the fuel filter tonight (to look at another problem) and I noticed that the connector to the fuel heater has been damaged in the past and doesn't actually "click in" ... I checked the relay using FES and voltage is getting to the connector, so I made the connector a more "snug" fit with the aid of some electrical tape ... so I'll see how it goes in the morning ... :fingerscrossed:
 
#33 ·
Well still not starting that (2 or 3 turn overs instead of 1) well so I decided that even though I haven't got any glow plug errors I decided to do some "preventative maintenance" and replace them anyway (I don't think the glow plugs have ever been changed in the car and it has now done 160k)


this is what I found



I've done three of them tonight ... just got the 2 barsteward ones on the left to do :thumbs:
 
#34 ·
It was getting worse and worse so I gave Adie (AHM) a ring and given what I'd already fixed he pretty much diagnosed it over the phone as an injector problem, sure enough when I took it down and he did a leak back test Injector 1 was leaking back badly ... so he replaced it (ouch at the price!!!) and now the car starts perfectly again!!!
 
#36 ·
glad you fixed it ...bugger about the £ though

where did you get the glowplugs from? are they easy to change?
I got the glow plugs from my local auto factors, but quoted them some ebay prices to get the price down ... they were about as easy to change as sidelight bulbs (so not at all then!!!)
 
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