Dear experts,

I am noticing my jeep (European model) is hard start from cold so here is the history of things I have noticed to date. it has 72000 miles on the clock.

1) hard start from cold. However once started and run/driven for a minute, it will restart fine. She tends to "miss" a bit initially if I don't give it some throttle. Glow plugs (Spurious) replaced last year. It could be possible they are gone but I haven't checked yet.

2) There are 4 solenoid control valves on the drivers side of the Cam cover. The first one (blue circle marking) nearest the window appeared to be making rapid ticking noises as if it was faulty. (sounded like a tic-tac been shaken fast in its box). I replaced this 2 months ago but it still makes those noises. it might be possible that one of the other 3 are faulty which in turn affect the egr and air intake. Although, I can see the air intake value moving when pressing throttle. Note, the air intake vacuum valve does not move until the jeep is running for a couple of minutes. Or possibly there is some Vacuum issue. Would this affect starting due to possibly not enough air in initial phase? (my guess unlikely)

3) I noticed that there are what appears to be specks of OIL on my tail gate. I realize this can be a normal event with cool temperatures. But could the turbo be blowing oil? Might be an exhaust pressure issue. Is this somehow affecting starting?

3A) What I have noticed is that the waste gate turbo vacuum valve only moves slightly when I rev the jeep. In fact it only occurs at 4000 revs. Is this an issue. I guess it is not since the turbo should kick in
under load. Hence load would occur at much lower revs when actually driving.

4) New battery since Sept. It appears to be charging around 14 volts when started. However the alternator belt is quite noisy. To keep the engine quite while listening for issues I often spray a squirt or two of WD40 which quitens the noise down. Is it possible that the belt is too worn and is not charging the battery correctly. And in turn is not strong enough to turn engine. I have a set of spots hooked up to the battery but they are seldom used. I may disconnect it in case it is somehow draining the battey due to a faulty relay.

5) I replaced the Fuel filter last week. And shes not spluttery while driving when warm. I suspect that if it was a choked fuel filter that it would be. Note, that sometimes when I initially take off from cold the jeep can jump a little as if it wasn't getting fuel. This soon sorts itself out in a minute or so. Again this could be down to faulty glow plugs.

6) One further note, when the Mazda dealer replaced the glow plugs last year I was standing beside him. I noticed the first plug, that is, the glow plug nearest the radiator had not got a glow tip on it. he said it must of broke off and that it has burned up. I asked was he sure it hasn't damaged the cylinder. he said it hasn't.

7) no OIL in the radiator water.


Any ideas as to what the cold start issues are if not the glow plugs? I will have the glow plugs checked later tonight.

kind regards,
Will.

 

All diesels are typically slow to start in the cold. Do you plug it in at night? Here in Michigan (U.S.)if you don't plug your diesel in at night, it most likely won't be starting in the morning. (It's -7C outside right now.)

Diesel fuel tends to gel up in the winter (get thick) and being that they have glow plugs (rather than spark plugs), they don't start as easy as a regular internal combustion engine.

If it's running just fine when it's warmed up, there may not be any problem at all. It's always a good idea on turbo motors to allow them time to both warm up before driving, and to spool down at an idle for ~30 seconds before turning the engine off.

 

Thanks sstlaure for your speedy reply.

it was the glow plugs after all (even though they where replaced a year ago). I did a circuit test on them and power was getting to them. Then i decided to take them out and and hook them up to a battery. not one of them lit up!!

So i replaced them. This morning was particularly frosty and was a perfect opportunity to see if this solved the problem. She fired up first time ;-)

I suspect if all glow plugs where not functioning that the the specks of oil or diesel on my tail gate and hitch where unburned fuel from these cold starts. I am going to wash the area now and monitor it closely.

By the way Ireland doesn't really get that cold, the odd time it gets around -3 Celsius. We have a tendency to get more rain though :-(

cheers,
Will.

 

Glad to hear you got it worked out. I wish it didn't get that cold here....but it does. (coldest I can remember it getting was -20 withoutwindchill (-28C BRRRRRRRRR)