[Warning Light] electrical issues and cold starting probs

[simon180399]

good afternoon , I have a 54 plate 1.9 diesel and when the weather's cold it really struggles to start. it will turn over for a good 5-10 seconds then eventually start. after it has started though both airbag warning lights are illuminated and the central locking switch stays illuminated too. if I turn it off and restart the lights go out. Could it be a dying battery? I've had it over a year and it wasn't this bad last winter, it was revving around 1200 revs on tickover , so it went to the garage for a service and the mechanic said he would take something off the engine to return the tickover back to normal, this has worked and been fine all #summer, he did say it may struggle in the winter and if so he will put whatever it was back on again. Also upon starting I occasionally hear an echo type ping when trying to start it. any advice would be welcomed. thank you , regards Simon

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[polar]

It sound like they disconnected the fast idle - not sure if this also advances the pump.

If 1.9 are not starting it is usually one of two things:

1) you have a glow plug down
2) if it has high millage the valve clearances have closed up

[Top drive]

it doesnt advance the pump

perfectly common for the wax stat to be removed but normally you will turn up the idle to 1100 as it will sound like a bag of spanners falling down the stairs trying to idle at 900 when cold.

wax stat reverts it to 900 as it heats up from an 1100 cold start - if you dont have this and are trying to idle at 900 when cold this will not be helping.

and then what polar said .

Check the glow plugs out your self , remove lead(To isolate that plug) , stick your multimeter to ohms and stick black to the body of the glow plug and put the red where you just removed the lead from  if it goes to infinate resistance - bad plug. good plug should be somewhere between 0.1 and 6 ohm and it only takes one dead one to slow things down.

how ever - even with no glow plugs ive never found it to wind over 5-10 seconds - it usually starts after 2-3 seconds but sounds like its going to jump out of the engine bay with the hammering (we have 3 diesel vehicles and this is the only one where you have to wait so i sometimes forget to wait)

Doesnt need to be high milage for the valves to need adjusting , mines needed doing 98k and the mech i spoke to when i needed shims says hes had them in from 30k upwards to get done. Sorting out the valve clearances is a cam shaft out job and its a cam over valve system so its timing belt off for that - and you need a box of shims to reshim the tappet buckets - i didt mine last year , not the most fun job in the world - took 3 or 4 times out with the cam and quite a few specific tools to complete . - torque wrench , pullers for the belt pulleys , timing pins , micrometers , aforementioned box of case hardened shims.

not a cheap job to do at a garage as its timing belt plus the aforementioned work.