Cold start issues?

[sgrew]

Anything below 20 degrees Fahrenheit I have issues starting my car. I have an oil pant heater… but still, 20 degrees seems like it shouldn’t be necessary.

Battery (came with it from previous owner): 760cca Group 47 interstate AMG battery.

I’ve seen posts on here saying group 27 fits?

 

[Nenw]

sorry for the short answer on this but you’re going to want to look into your glow plugs and make sure those are functioning correctly. A really quick test is tocycle them once and see how quickly they click over. if they click on and off almost immediately then you have a problem. Otherwise you want to pull them out and do a voltage check you can find that information in the forum several times over.

 

[sk66]

What issues; won't start, or hard start? Anywhere around freezing is enough to make it harder to start, especially if systems are not 100%.

Primary causes of hard start in cold... poor injector spray pattern, lower compression, air in fuel (IP seal leak/line crack), glow plug system.

If you have the super quick glow system it is helpful to cycle it a time or two before attempting a start... I think the plugs come up to temp really quick (comparatively), but that also means they haven't heated the surrounding surfaces/air as much. I believe the plugs are cooling off quickly because the second cycle doesn't seem to be notably shorter than the first.

 

[sgrew]

What issues; won't start, or hard start? Anywhere around freezing is enough to make it harder to start, especially if systems are not 100%.

Primary causes of hard start in cold... poor injector spray pattern, lower compression, air in fuel (IP seal leak/line crack), glow plug system.

If you have the super quick glow system it is helpful to cycle it a time or two before attempting a start... I think the plugs come up to temp really quick (comparatively), but that also means they haven't heated the surrounding surfaces/air as much. I believe the plugs are cooling off quickly because the second cycle doesn't seem to be notably shorter than the first.

General problem is that anything below freezing for the night is a rough start. Anything around 0F it is really hard to start (this is expected and not what I have an issue with). * This is my first diesel aswell, so I dont know what it *right* and *wrong*.

I do have the super quick glow plug system. Maybe I was being too gentle on the engine because it if start it and it turns over (where it would normally kick off) and just give it a tiny bit of gas it keeps going without issue and becomes gentler as it warms up. 1) I doubt its low compression since I had a bunch of internal work done on the engine and assume they would have checked/noticed that. 2) Injectors could be it, they aren't leaking tho. 3) Air in fuel, I suspect not. 4) Glow plug system, this is likely possible (previous owner was a bit cheap).

 

[sk66]

Maybe I was being too gentle on the engine because it if start it and it turns over (where it would normally kick off) and just give it a tiny bit of gas it keeps going without issue and becomes gentler as it warms up.

This sounds pretty normal to me...

4) Glow plug system, this is likely possible (previous owner was a bit cheap).

The main issue here would be if they installed 6v metal tipped plugs and it has a manual bypass to the 12v relay... this is likely to cause the tips of the plugs to blow out. The ceramic plugs can tolerate the abuse of being over-energized for too long; the metal tipped ones cannot.

 

[sgrew]

This sounds pretty normal to me...


The main issue here would be if they installed 6v metal tipped plugs and it has a manual bypass to the 12v relay... this is likely to cause the tips of the plugs to blow out. The ceramic plugs can tolerate the abuse of being over-energized for too long; the metal tipped ones cannot.

Cool, good to know. Ill do a double check on the glow plugs.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Not_Todd]

Anything below 20 degrees Fahrenheit I have issues starting my car. I have an oil pant heater… but still, 20 degrees seems like it shouldn’t be necessary.

Battery (came with it from previous owner): 760cca Group 47 interstate AMG battery.

I’ve seen posts on here saying group 27 fits?

I've also been having a bad time with cold starts and followed this guide.

Thread 'Checklist to Diagnose a diesel Delica not starting' https://delicaforum.com/index.php?threads/checklist-to-diagnose-a-diesel-delica-not-starting.3715/

I'm at the point where I've "boosted" my glowplugs with a jumper cables to my battery and it starts great. Just about to install a momentary switch to activate them.

Goofy switch because why not? Lol