Hi all when I got to my car in a morning if it's cold my heater plug light comes on but only stays on for a matter of seconds and my car struggles to start or don't start at all its my daily car I use it for work and it's let me down this morning I've tested the battery and it's fine Wat could it be hope somebody can shed some light on it thanks xxx??
possible 'tired'/worn out glowplugs
It's nowhere near cold enough yet that it should be having any difficulties starting even without waiting for the glowplugs, assuming it's an HDi as per your profile.
When you say that it struggles to start, is the starter cranking over at normal speed or is it laboured/slow?
i have seen my glowplugs flash on once in the past year for about half a second (literally) when it was -8 outside. These should start easily without glowplugs in all but the coldest weather (i am talking negative figures here).
possible causes are:
tired or dead starter (will sound laboured when cranking and as if it's struggling)
knackered lift pump in the tank,
Possibly a temp sensor somewhere,
Blocked fuel filter
have a look at this (very detailed) post:
http://306oc.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=1497
HDI uses glowplugs even if the light dont show get them tested
if the battery is weak the ecu will shut down due to lack of volts
Should still start though, even if it will run like a bag of shit
if the volts are low to the ecu it will never start but it will keep turning over!
Does it run on after switching off?
Glow plugs will not prevent it from starting this side of -10. When you say you've tested the battery, how did you do it, was it a proper drop test?
3 of the 4 glow plugs were not working so changed all 4 starts fine now thanks everyone ???
Interesting, i'll stfu lol, thanks for updating.