Hi
My 2007 ducato 2.2 is becoming worse at starting from cold, typically its 3 turns of the key. A scenario may be; 1st turn nothing, 2nd turn it may turn over slowly but not start, 3rd attempt it springs into life with a some white smoke from the exhaust. It will start first turn for the rest of the day?
Any help appreciated not sure if it's the ignition switch, battery/starter (both replaced last year) a bad Earth on the starter circuit or a fuel pressure leak ?
I do have lexia/planet with a fiat adaptor so I should be able to pull any codes tomorrow ?

johntom said:

Hi
My 2007 ducato 2.2 is becoming worse at starting from cold, typically its 3 turns of the key. A scenario may be; 1st turn nothing, 2nd turn it may turn over slowly but not start, 3rd attempt it springs into life with a some white smoke from the exhaust. It will start first turn for the rest of the day?
Any help appreciated not sure if it's the ignition switch, battery/starter (both replaced last year) a bad Earth on the starter circuit or a fuel pressure leak ?
I do have lexia/planet with a fiat adaptor so I should be able to pull any codes tomorrow ?

Click to expand...

First turn nothing definitely doesn't point to a fuel pressure leak.
Earth strap is a good starting point. Is it a camper thats been idle over the winter?

How cold is cold?
A common problem with early X250 vehicles is sloppy temperature measurement. At temperatures a few degrees above freezing the ECU thinks it doesn't need the glow plugs, so the vehicle is hard to start, while below freezing point it starts fine. The engine also probably has lost some compression since 2007.

Hi
I only use the van in summer for a part time business, however the poor starting is constant throughout the summer, so I don't think it's due to low ambient temperature, or because of storage. Is there a particular earth strap that I should look for ?

johntom said:

Hi
I only use the van in summer for a part time business, however the poor starting is constant throughout the summer, so I don't think it's due to low ambient temperature, or because of storage. Is there a particular earth strap that I should look for ?

Click to expand...

When battery voltage is under 12.4 it starts to sulfate if its allowed to go flat over the storage period its scrap.

Pic of the earth strap here:


Also worth checking the battery terminals are clean an properly connected and the terminal connectors arent corrded splayed or split.

There won't be any codes to read unless there also is the orange warning light.
Take a good look at the battery ground strap, in particular the end that is bolted to the chassis. The terminal is crimped on the cable with very high pressure and may have a hair fracture between the hexagonal compression sleeve and the flat part that goes under the bolt.
In my van the -almost invisible- crack ran over more than half the width of the terminal. There were starting issues as you described, so I first bought a new battery and when that didn't improve things I discovered the crack because the terminal got hot after a few attempt to start the engine.
A blow torch and some solder wire solved the problem.

Hi
I will check the earth strap tomorrow, I thought about running some jump leads from the battery to a solid earth before attempting to start the van just to check the earth?

The fault codes are:
P0480 low speed fan relay control fault - open circuit or fault to earth.
P0401 Exhaust gas recirculation electric valve position signal - solenoid valve closed.
P0103 flowmeter signal - egr flow too low
P0603 control unit - electrical fault
P0683 pre-post heating relay control - plug fault.

Thanks for the reply.
Just had a look under the bonnet, the earth strap seems to be slightly frayed at one end. I ran a jump lead from the battery earth terminal to the engine side of the earth strap and the it started first turn ! I will get a new one tomorrow and try again.

Big disappointment, I fitted the new (but longer) earth strap making sure it was tight etc - the van turned over ready slowly before speeding up and eventually starting. Pretty much as before, problem not solved !

I will have a look at the battery negative terminal in case that is the weak link ?

Yes, keep trying. All connections have to be shiny clean and full contact. Common problem on tractors too, have to be quite pedantic about it. Get some copper grease to keep them fresh

Mine always started first time. Then it took several times. Then I realized I was forgetting to wait with the ignition on for a second - until the glow plug light goes out, before turning the key to start the engine Now it starts first time again

Must admit mine must be ready for glow plugs, but access looks difficult, hence they're still in the Jiffy bag they were delivered in 12 months ago!
My problem is more slow turning over from cold, sometimes it's as though the battery is dead on the first turn, then second turn it improves and builds up speed. Once it's been started its first turn all day?

Glow plugs won't make it turn over faster the opposite in fact as they will load the battery more.

johntom said:

My problem is more slow turning over from cold, sometimes it's as though the battery is dead on the first turn, then second turn it improves and builds up speed. Once it's been started its first turn all day?

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Disconnect the battery and charge it fully with a decent mains charger it for at least 15 hours preferably over days and bear in mind that if the voltage was low over the winter it will never fully recover.

ecunotemu said:

When battery voltage is under 12.4 it starts to sulfate if its allowed to go flat over the storage period its scrap.

Click to expand...

andydiver said:

Yes, keep trying. All connections have to be shiny clean and full contact. Common problem on tractors too, have to be quite pedantic about it. Get some copper grease to keep them fresh

Click to expand...

This^ an earth is only as good as the contact surfaces you'll want to wire brush the nuts bots and contact surfaces.

Are there any other earth points I can check before replacing the battery and starter etc?