Club 80-90 Forums

binka wrote: Battery is fine - have got a gadget that measures it and its got 12v.

A fully charged battery should have 12.6 v (or is it 12.7) and when at 12volts is regarded to be around 25% of full charge and 11.9 v is classed as discharged so there's not a lot of margin for error on the readings.

Glow plugs will be quite a load on a poorly battery, before trying to spin the engine

It was actually 12.6, sorry. Went down to 9 when trying to start but straight back up to 12.

Do I need a new battery?

Dropping to 9v sounds ok to me. How long have you kept it cranking over for without it firing?

As far as the white smoke you mentioned, that can be a few things; cold weather & cold engine, faulty glow plug system or just low cranking speed. It's a build up of unburned fuel particles so it could be compression problem, a timing problem or an injector problem.

Have you got any sort of "home start" breakdown cover, to get it up and running and then take it straight over to Ian ?

I've only got roadside recovery. There is a garage in our village and I've rung the bloke there. He says he'll come and get it but doesn't know when, may not be today as he's busy.

I kept it cranking over for about 20-30 seconds. Didn't want to carry on for too long in case I flooded the engine?

Have to go out and do stuff now so good luck, hope you get it sorted

It is probably something very annoyingly simple.. When was the engine oil last changed, it can get sludgy quickly in a diesel and make things spin slowly and bearing in mind the cold weather and it's not been run for a while..

You could try a blast of easystart ... Not good for long term use as engines seem to become addicted to it (no idea why) but for a problem like this it might have some benefits.

I've only had the van since last July and haven't had it serviced yet. Bloke who had it before me seemd a competent if amatuer mechanic and did all his own servicing, oil changes, etc. I didn't ask him when anything was last done. Was planning to get it serviced this July but maybe should have done it sooner.

try the damp start its a bit more volatile and might get it to fire white smoke is un burnt diesel sounds like glow plugs not heating enough

You could try aiming a hair dryer at the air intake for a bit before turning over. Keep it there when you turn it over to so you draw in the warm air. Used this as a trick to get marine diesels running in the past that were a bit reluctant to start in cold weather.

When ever I have a prob starting after having tried the obvious I tie it to a tow rope and drag it ect ect and works everytime..........................

as you look in the engine bay there is a black box on the left hand side.in there is a load of wires,a couple of relays.and a copper strip fuse make sure this is intact.as they do burn out.it looks like this..http://www.justkampers.com/shop/type_25 ... 10940.html

Any Joy ?

Oh yes.

A friend's hubby came round (he's a mechanic), he put the key in the ignition and it started first time! I'm and all at the same time.

Now he had to shoot off so couldn't check anything over. He said its maybe because its warmer today than the past couple of days, but if thats the case there must still be a reason why it won't start if too cold.

isn't there a cold start lever on diesels?

kevtherev wrote:isn't there a cold start lever on diesels?

should be , looks like a choke lever or a bonnet puller ,irrc its near your left knee ? rhd van.
thats if it was connected up when the engine was swapped

Found it, hubby says he always wondered what it was for.