How fast does it crank over on the rev counter.

needs a minimum of 120rpm.

Blast,

Oh well,

As stated diesels need a minimum turn over speed of 100/120 RPM,

so you garage might be able to plug their scanner in to check this.

Not having any spark plugs diesel relay on the heat generated by the engine spinning over and compressing the air in the cylinders.

So a lazy starter or high restance cable could limit the turn over speed.

as could bad/old oil restrict it.

Or a partial air bleed into the fuel filter.

or a number of other things

But If this were in to me now I'd absolutly need the cranking speed to be checked before suspecting glow plugs or anything else.

The fact that it starts all through the day means internals are most likely fine.

So again I state cold engine cranking RPM speed required.

Yes checking the glow plugs are getting power is a good start, if you can find an ammeter capable of reading (without melting) 60+ amps @ 12v you could connect the ammeter between the glow plug supply wire and the first plug in line, as Dieselnut states they take around 15a each, if you have a lower powered ammeter you could do the same test but individually only and take care of bare bits of disconnected link wire earthing out during testing.

I used to keep a good old 30a dashboard Lucas ammeter from a scap car for jobs like these, lent it out and it never came back...why i never learn that many have no honour i do not know, such is life.

The other simple thing to do is to make sure you have full head of fuel in the filter by operating the plunger till it goes solid before trying to start, fuel might be leaking back to tank during the night.

And use a set of jump leads from a good known battery as well as yours to give some oomph when trying to start, as i recall the 1.8 truns over really slowly at the best of times, might be the new battery is under spec or the starter dying.

Edited by gordonbennet on 11/01/2016 at 12:52

Never seen one of those before Railroad, excellent, damned sight easier than the faffing about i suggested.