Hi All,

My father has a Fiat (99) Ducato Maxi D LWB Boxer Van. Tho this van is old other than the starting problem its the perfect van.
We have had many people look this van over and it just seems to bamboozle just about everyone, even those in the garages who clearly just cannot be bothered in trying to get to the problem cant be bothered because its clearly not a simple problem and too time consuming for them to even take the van in.

The van drives, and it drives well, it can drives miles and miles - with no problems at all.
BUT ... the minute you turn off the ignition you are not going to get that van to start for love or money!!
We have to sit and wait for half and hour to an hour before she starts up again!! Even the AA had no clue!!

It sounds like a heating problem, but the van is not over heating!

New batteries have been brought (3 in fact)
New spark plugs and lots of other little bits and bobs, even a brand new start motor (2 by 2 different garages) still the same problem.

This makes no odds whether you drive for 1 mile or 40 miles, the after starting the engine and switching the engine off you have to wait half an hour before it will start again!!

If you guys have any ideas at all i would LUV ya forever, because this is really starting to get my papa down now, he loves this old tank and well, his slowly falling out of love with her and they have been together for so long it would be such a shame to see these two seperate lol !!

Thanks for listening

Salsere xx

engine?

Any more details?
Are you getting a spark,
petrol getting through,
or too much petrol,
does it smell, plugs wet or dry?

its a 2.8 diesal - doesnt smell of anything, we had all the plugs changed at the garge and they reasure us its nothing to do with them.

All the battery lights stay on the interior when you turn the key

but when you turn the key to start it nothing happens, doesnt tick over or try to even tick over, its like its a flat battery but you know its not a flat battery because the lights are working.

when i say interior i dont mean the door light, i mean the dash board lights all come on and doesnt show any warning signs.

Everyone thats ever looked at it have changed the spark plugs and recharged the battery or replaced the battery because thats always their first throught.
Then a new starter motor, to whch we ended up having two new ones put on because we took it to another garage.

Sounds like an immobaliser problem. Could be going into security mode for x mins.
How many keys do you have . If more than 1, does the van act the same using the other key ?
Do you have more than 1 chipped key on your keyring ?
Call an autolocksmith fo advice.

good luck

your saying its had spark plugs changed then you say its a 2.8 diesel. check what engine you have so as to be able to help

I would presume he means glow plugs, if you have to wait for the van to get cold before it starts then the glow plugs were never an issue! Those engines will start no problem with all dead glow plugs. Like ponsaloti says sounds like an immobiliser problem, sounds like the fuel solenoid may be sticking. If you get the immobiliser removed make sure to tell your insurance company.