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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[arnie187]

When running it seems perfect. Been starting like a dream all week. Till just now cranked and cranked and cranked then started.. cheers for all the info .I've read somewhere about the flywheel needing a certain rpm before it injects fuel .could it be starter motor I know it's not the typical symptoms of a failing starter. Or could it be software problem .
Other than, this once every now and then, starting issue . the car does not miss a beat.
I have a little rust on fuel filter lid. If it is letting air in would it be more routine so to speak.as this is very intermittent.

Cheers again for plethora of information

Just received the new fuel filter a bosch one , i noticed the oring on the bosch one seems a lot thicker, than the Wix filter oring, will swap them over tomorrow after work

Edited by arnie187 on Wednesday 8th November 21:06

[arnie187]

Is there a way i can check starter, to see it's up to the job.really need to pin point the problem down , so i'm not just replacing things in hope, Spoke to Seat Birmingham today ,about software updates, There is a ecu update outstanding on my car , its for the ABS that's all she could tell me .

Edited by arnie187 on Thursday 9th November 20:06

[arnie187]

Replaceed fuel fiter housing and hoses to housing . And all has been fine . Cheers for advice

Edited by arnie187 on Sunday 19th November 09:06