|
I have a 1996 (P) mark IV Fiesta with the 1.8 Endura diesel engine which has covered (allegedly) 50,000 miles from new. I have only owned the car a month and in that time had it serviced, which included oil & filter change, air filter change, fuel filter change, cam belt change, brake fluid and engine coolant replacement and today changed the glow plugs. The car still seems to take a while to start, but only when starting from cold. I have had the battery checked and have been told it is in excellent condition. Any ideas what I could try to make it fire up a bit quicker? If its too involved then I'll just put up with it. After all its a 10 year old car that maybe I'm expecting too much of! Cheers, Mark.
|
Always poor starters from cold you seem to covered most things especialy glow plugs
1 point to remember is that you can apply FULL throttle whilst cranking over without doing any damage as it's one of the old school diesels
I other point the starter moters can get "lazy" if it seems slow then get a recon
|
|
|
Check the glowplugs actually work, their is a timer relay which fails that the plugs get their power from.
|
|
Cheers guys. tr7v8 - any ideas where the timer relay is and how I test it?
|
Don't touch the accelerator pedal when starting a diesel (diesel engines don't have a throttle). When you crank the engine, the fuel pump will automatically select excess fuel for starting, which is then automatically de-selected when the engine is being controlled by the idle governor. Excess fuel is rather more than max fuel in any case - witness the puff of black smoke whern the engine first fires.
This engine is rather notorious for poor cold starting. Fit a set of Beru glowplugs, check the timer, check valve clearances, ensure that the fuel filter is correctly assembled with all the O-rings, check the pump timing - especially after a belt change and finally do a cold compression test. I can't help you with the timer location as I have only dealt with this engine on a test bed.
Things will get better in the Spring.
659.
|
|
Agree with above, look to valve clearances. Depending on the quality of the glow plugs, sometimes preheating the engine twice helps.
|
|
Leak in primer pump Diaphragm. Prime car before staring and if OK then there is your problem. New primer pump required. Regards Peter
|
|
In the Nineties I owned a number of Ford diesels-first an Escort ,then a number of Fiestas.On the cold start system fitted to these,which was different to later models,you were required to put your foot on the accelerator when you cranked.They were not fitted with an enrichment/fast idle device like later models.They were started by the pump advancing the injection timing by a considerable amount-when the motor started,the build up of pressure in the pump returned the timing to standard.I have never had any starting concerns on any of my diesels-even my current Escort TD bursts into life on it's occasional starts(used mainly in France) even with a 6 year old battery.It does sound like an air-leak in the fuel supply.
|
|
|
|
Quoted:-
"Always poor starters from cold you seem to covered most things especialy glow plugs
1 point to remember is that you can apply FULL throttle whilst cranking over without doing any damage as it's one of the old school diesels
I other point the starter moters can get "lazy" if it seems slow then get a recon." <<<<< Totally Disagree
Quoted:-
"Don't touch the accelerator pedal when starting a diesel (diesel engines don't have a throttle). When you crank the engine, the fuel pump will automatically select excess fuel for starting, which is then automatically de-selected when the engine is being controlled by the idle governor. Excess fuel is rather more than max fuel in any case - witness the puff of black smoke whern the engine first fires.
This engine is rather notorious for poor cold starting. Fit a set of Beru glowplugs, check the timer, check valve clearances, ensure that the fuel filter is correctly assembled with all the O-rings, check the pump timing - especially after a belt change and finally do a cold compression test. I can't help you with the timer location as I have only dealt with this engine on a test bed." <<<<< Totally Agree
I had a mk5 Escort 1.8 diesel with 250k without any rebuilds, just regular services and belt changes. If at any time it started to be difficult in starting and run roughly for a few seconds, this was the sign of a duff heater plug or two.
The ways to test the Relay is using a large wattage bulb (H/lamp) and with 2 lengths of wire about 50cm long. One end of the wire touching an earth point and the other touching a glow plug connection. If the bulb lights up, you know the relay is OK, but it should remain on for approx. 20secs.
For testing the glow plugs using the same bulb. Disconnect all the interlinking wire connections from the glow plugs. With one wire on the live side of the battery, touch each of the glow plugs wiring threaded part, if the bulb lights up the plug is OK, if not its a duff one.
If you replace any of the plugs, make sure they are rapid heat type. If the relay is at fault you can get these from a good Motor Factor, same goes for the plugs. I always used NGK plugs with no problems.
good luck
|
|
|
