Club 80-90 Forums

Hey all,

I know this topic has been covered before, but I've not been able to find what I was looking for.

My van (1.6 diesel, cs) has difficulty cold starting. Below about 7C it struggles and starts on less than 4 cilinders. Below freezing it is really difficult to get going, starts on I think two cilinders, conks out sometimes, and takes a few mins to start running somewhat normal. Below -5C I don't think it would start at all.

During all of this it smokes like I've never seen before. As in, enough to fill an entire valley with blue smoke... I've added a smokey picture below. At the moment it starts running okay (after about 1 mile of driving) it also stops smoking.

I've already changed the glow plugs. When glowing multiple times it glows shorter every time, so my guess is that the glow system is working properly.

The cold start lever works fine when it's a bit warmer, and seems to help in colder conditions too, so I'm assuming this works fine as well.

When warmed up it runs very well, low fuel consumption, no oil usage etc.

Any ideas of what I could look into to make the cold starts easier and less smokey? I'm a bit at a loss currently. Thanks!

Check your injector pump timing.

Thats what I would suggest too.
I had the same problem with tricky smokey starts and changed the glow plugs assuming that was the problem but problem persisted.
A mate suggested I check the timing and luckily for me, it is a golf engine with OBD so i could check and set it accurately with vcds.
It was way out ( almost maybe next tooth on the belt way out) but spot on now and it starts on the button every time now with no smoke. And runs even better.

I will definately look into this! Have never worked on a mechanical pump like this, so should be a nice challenge.

Thanks for the suggestion guys