Dturbo Lumpy At Start

[Russ_T 1]

Hello,

 

My DTurbo has started to be a little annoying.

 

Key in, ignition on, count to five, starts well.

 

Give it about 30 seconds and it suddenly becomes a bit lumpy, dieing out a little bit, if you leave it and it's cold sometimes it'll stall and won't be easy to start. Generally though if you pick the revs up a bit and drive about 100yards it'll then be fine.

 

I'm new to diesels, but to me it's as if the automatic choke is coming off too early or something like that. I should imagine deep inside something like a tb is gunked up.

 

Any ideas please? I have a tacho sensor to remove and clean on the weekend and would like to sort this at the same time.

 

Also anyone know where I can get a replacement air pipe that sits on the top of the engine? Mine looks to be ready to collapse and this is AFTER the air filter so bad news

 

Cheers

[Anthony 1,003]

Very slight air leak somewhere in the diesel line?

 

Certainly that would fit with your comment about it running lumpy and not wanting to start if stalled.

 

Old tech diesels like the XUD can be an utter swine for these sorts of problems, as the leak can be extremely difficult to find - often there won't be a visible leak of diesel or maybe just a faint weep, and older ones are certainly of an age where the rubber pipes are perishing.

 

Last time I had this, the problem was that the fuel filter housing wasn't quite sealed - never leaked or even weeped, but if you pumped the fuel primer sufficiently you occasionally got a tiny bubble out of the side. What happened was that with the engine running and up to temperature it was fine, but once you'd left it to cool down, a tiny bit of air had worked its way in. It would initially start, and then be an absolute swine until it warmed up, and then was fine again.

 

It only takes the tiniest bit of air to make older diesels run badly or not at all.

[samthornton1990 23]

Glow plugs bud.... I had exactly the same problem with mine, loads of smoke, ran like a bag of s*it till I got it down the road. Sometimes it can be down to the pump timing, I had a set of second hand glow plugs kicking about, sorted it pretty swiftly. And 5 seconds isn't long enough for the plugs to heat up, you need to wait for the light to go off at least, if you listen carefully you can here the relay switching off in the engine bay. It is a common occurance for the light and relay to come out of sync... Try that and see what happens... And if you want to get into them, get on TDOCUK.com, loads of people have d turbos on there (including me) be able to help you out.

[Anthony 1,003]

Normally with failed glow plugs it will run badly from the moment it starts though, not run fine for 30 seconds odd.

[Russ_T 1]

Thanks for the help guys.

 

The glow plugs were replaced a couple years ago, but maybe faulty.

 

Generally the car is excellent, and it doesn't smoke at all. Just this too low an idle until it's been driven a bit.

 

Two more possible symptoms -

 

I've given up on the glow plug light. Most of the time it doesn't come on at all, sometimes it does but comes on after a little while rather than initially.

 

Occasionally I used to have a problem where power would die off a little and the engine would go flat when on part/full throttle going quite fast. This would only last a second or so and it'd be fine again. Very occasionally I would coast down a hill or stop hard and the engine would cut out (stop light comes on) as if I had momentarily disconnected the battery. Doesn't seem to do it nowadays thinking about it.

 

I wanted to change the fuel filter, but mine doesn't appear to be standard. It's fairly new, but no motor factor can get me the right filter so I think it's probably not from a 205. I'll check it out as well after work, see if I can find a leak maybe.

 

I'll check my fuel lines on the weekend. Any other ideas please?

 

Currently I'm pricing up new cars for my run to work, of about fifty different 'eco' cars my best bets are a 206 GTI Hdi (3 years to repay itself when upgrading from my DTurbo), a 1.3 Yaris (2 years) or a 205 2.0HDI DW10 conversion which pays for itself in under a year I'm struggling to get away from these 205s no matter how hard I try. Sorry for gibbering, no one here wants to hear about 205s.

 

Thank you very much for your help

[samthornton1990 23]

Hmm fair point, oo check your cold start mechanism.... that may be switching off too fast, I also had this problem..... little cable going from the fuel pump to the thermostat housing, just behind the fuel filter

[samthornton1990 23]

Oh god, sorry all that advice was for a 306, I always assume 306 when I hear d turbo. Go VAG, I'm looking into a passat 130pd, after having a word with the guys on the passat forum, they are pretty bombproof, get 60mpg on a good run and 50mpg elsewhere. Can't wait to get one

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

I agree with Anthony, it does sound fuel related but if you can't / haven't changed the fuel filter recently then this could be the problem.

 

With dead glowplugs it will be hard to start from cold & smoke when it finally fires imo, I used to ignore the dash light & listen for a click when the relay timed out, started much better than just going by the dash light.

 

My old STDT fuel hose from the block fuel heater to the filter bowl had perished & was drawing air in which made the car stutter & eventually die completely.

 

Can you get a pic of the fuel filter you have fitted?

 

Also, the cold start cable if its idling low until it warms up a bit, the waxstats are well known to fail / seize up but that wouldn't cause any of the other problems you mention.

 

g

[Russ_T 1]

Ahh, to me it sounds like something related to the cold starts, once it's warm this problem goes away. The fuel filter is fairly new by the looks of it along with the glow plugs. I'll try and track down the cable running from the thermostat to the fuel pump housing and watch that when I start it. I guess the waxstat is the thermostat? I haven't noticed the engine temp moving anywhere so maybe it is knackered. I've also got a dodgy tacho sender to sort *sigh*

 

Here are some pics, including my seemingly odd fuel filter, let me know if you spot anything.

 

Cheers guys

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

That's one of the normal standard 205 TD fuel filter imo, looks to be the same one that was fitted to my old STDT before I changed over to the later 306 small filter on the head iirc.

 

http://www.miamistu.co.uk/pug/GB/205N/1/15G15A.HTM

 

The waxstat is the unit with the cable running to the fuel pump from the thermostat housing to below the throttle cable on the pump, the nut near the oil tower you can see in your first pic. They used to cost about £15.

 

It should be tight when the engine is cold & slack once its warmed up.

 

It has nothing to do with the temperature gauge, that's just a wire from a sender on top of the thermostat housing, maybe they are inciorrectly connected?

 

g