My 2.8jtd has an intermittent starting fault. The engine spins fine. Sometimes it starts perfectly. Other times it will spin and never fire. No matter when I give up, however, it ALWAYS fires the second time instantly.

It has had the crank sensor replaced but with no change.

It has around 25000 on the clock, owned from new.

Grateful for ideas.

Dave

If it were me I'd need to get a diagnostic cable and check the rail pressure while cranking. A vagcom cable from ebay with fiatecusan will sort you out for under 20 quid. I suspec the pressure regulator on the pump may be faulty. Another forum member mentioned a bit of detrius ocassionally blockinghte hole in the pressure sensor. If rail pressure is ok you should be able to graph the other parameters and find whats different.

For completeness.

Well mine is now cured and starts quickly first time. Every time on a recent 2 week motorhoming Mosel/Rhine trip it fired instantly.

What is was was pretty simple, even if a little surprising. The cam sensor picks up on a raised section in the cam sprocket over which the cambelt goes. This approx 1.5cm by .75cm piece had corroded on one end and some of this corrosion was on the cam sensor. Merely cleaning both and re-setting the gap made all the difference in the world.

I hope this helps others with the same symptoms.

Dave