Poor Start after few Days Standing ...Altea

[arnie187]

Alright

New here ,so hello to everyone, I was after some help .I have brought a Seat Altea 2.0 Tdi 140 BKd engine(full service history ) around 5 months ago. In the last few weeks it has been a pain to start .The engine cranks over till the oil warning light pops up. it can do this 3-4 times before it fires up .Once running it runs fine , and will then start on first turn of key for rest of the day. Even the day after it will be fine , Come the second day if left standing (My daily is a sprinter van ) it will take 3-4 tries to get it to fire ,I was thinking air in fuel line somewhere, I don't really know that much about Tdi and this is my first diesel . Also no codes stored, but only scanned with a vgate VS450, Don't own Vcds
Any help would be appreciated

Chris

Edited by arnie187 on Tuesday 26th September 17:52

[227bhp]

Battery?

[arnie187]

Had battery tested and was told ok . also when cranking it never gets weaker in trying to turn it over

Edited by arnie187 on Tuesday 26th September 17:52

[E-bmw]

Try turning it on, waiting for the glow plug light to go out & the fuel pump to stop priming & then try it & get back to us after paying lots of attention to what you hear & see with your door open.

[arnie187]

Ok will do, its working fine at the moment , so will give a few days and try it again ,,cheers

[arnie187]

Car has been fine last two weeks . Used every day . Used car last night fine. This morning would not start cranked and cranked and then came to life. There were no dimming of the lights while trying
I could hear the lift pump prime. Glow plug light came and off ..also had glow plugs changed last week. The problem seem to be very interminet... where to look now

[Dire Grammes]

arnie187 said:

Car has been fine last two weeks . Used every day . Used car last night fine. This morning would not start cranked and cranked and then came to life. There were no dimming of the lights while trying
I could hear the lift pump prime. Glow plug light came and off ..also had glow plugs changed last week. The problem seem to be very interminet... where to look now

You needed to know if the old glow plugs were burnt out. Do you know?
If the old glow plugs were burnt out there is always the possibility that some or all of the new plugs have burnt out.
Sometimes the glow plug circuit can go faulty and keep the plugs permanently on until they burn out
Just a thought

[arnie187]

The garage who changed them said "they have bubbled". I asked them to be changed to start with as from service history had never been done.. is there way to check voltage at the harness

[Dire Grammes]

arnie187 said:

The garage who changed them said "they have bubbled". I asked them to be changed to start with as from service history had never been done.. is there way to check voltage at the harness

You can check the voltage is at each glow plug with a volt meter, voltage at a glow plug doesn't mean it's working, you can check a glow plug with a ammeter or remove the plugs and connect them to a good 12 volt battery and see if they heat up and glow, don't burn your fingers or anything else if connecting glow plugs to a battery, be careful

[arnie187]

ok will get the glow plugs checked again, did notice earlier a tiny bit of grey/black smoke on start up lasts half a second ,I did record ,can post if helps.

Edited by arnie187 on Wednesday 11th October 19:32

[Josho]

Hiya mate its the injector seals.

Well that being said it can be the tandem pump but when the tandem pump plays up it can drain the diesel back in a matter of minutes after switch off.

The injector seals go and the diesel drains back overnight.

Are you local to Kent at all?

Check your oil level too if it has risen it is likely diesel.

[arnie187]

Not local to Kent sorry. I'm in Tamworth Staffordshire. Oil level been ok . Did change oil last week . All seemed ok . If it was seals would you smell the diesel with in the engine bay?. Sorry if a stupid question cars are not my forte.. .

Edited by arnie187 on Wednesday 11th October 18:29

[arnie187]

Is it possible to fit a clear fuel line to see if fuel drains back .
Car stood from 6pm till 7.10 this morning fires up first turn of key.

[Sheepshanks]

arnie187 said:

Once running it runs fine , and will then start on first turn of key for rest of the day. Even the day after it will be fine..

The frequency is a bit random. A colleague had a Touareg (2.5 V6 diesel, I think) and that did the same sort of thing but it happened after a few hours. Glow plug change made no difference and both a VW dealer and a recommended VW indie said it was likely to be a lot of little things all slightly worn / aged (car had done 80K) and rather than spend many hours diagnosis and trial and error, the best thing would be to change the entire fuel system. So he got it done at the indie at a cost of about £3500.

I have an older Merc diesel and they have a issue with fuel line seals letting air in - mine will be iffy if the fuel level gets low and I park it facing uphill. So I avoid both of those things!

[Josho]

Hi mate if it starts fine after an hour I can practically guarantee it's the injector seals!

Euro car parts sell the Bosch injector seals reasonably but make sure you get new injector bolts as they stretch and if you don't replace them the injectors will come loose over the next few months.

[arnie187]

Took car to local vag specialist he ran vcds . Everything came back ok. He did suggest fuel draining back to tank .Where would i start looking ,Car was serviced about a month ago all filters changed including fuel filter, Would this be a place to check, for bad o`ring or such

[Sheepshanks]

arnie187 said:

Would this be a place to check, for bad o`ring or such

Sounds like a plan if that fits with when the problem first reared its head.

There aren't different types of filter are there - perhaps one with a non-return valve?

[arnie187]

It's was around the time . But hard to say as don't use the vehicle every day. And with with infrequency of the issue. It seems to happen if car is left for around 24 hours .

Edited by arnie187 on Friday 20th October 14:22

[arnie187]

It was around the time . But hard to say as don't use the vehicle every day. And with with infrequency of the issue. It seems to happen if car is left for around 24 hours .

Edited by arnie187 on Friday 20th October 16:13

Edited by arnie187 on Friday 20th October 16:14

[arnie187]

Changed the coolant temp sensor two weeks ago, and had been fine up to today, today it cranked but instead of the normal cranking , It did a splutter or two and started up . Starting to get annoying.