hello, can anyone help? I've bought my first camper, a 1994 Ducato (mk1). She starts, but only reluctantly after a lot of accelerator. The light for the glow plugs flashes on only for a split second. I've asked my mechanic to sort it out but he is at his wit's end, can't even find the glow plugs. The wiring on the engine seems to have been "customised" at some point, he described it as like a rat's nest. The leisure battery located behind the passenger seat won't charge while we are driving either, and he thinks this is also related to the wiring confusion. Can anyone help?

post your engine code.


there may have been more than one type of 2.5 diesel fitted in 1994.


try a camper specialist to sort out wiring , current mechanic doesn't want to get involved with it.

kerry2017 said:

hello, can anyone help? I've bought my first camper, a 1994 Ducato (mk1). She starts, but only reluctantly after a lot of accelerator. The light for the glow plugs flashes on only for a split second. I've asked my mechanic to sort it out but he is at his wit's end, can't even find the glow plugs. The wiring on the engine seems to have been "customised" at some point, he described it as like a rat's nest. The leisure battery located behind the passenger seat won't charge while we are driving either, and he thinks this is also related to the wiring confusion. Can anyone help?

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go to posting two weeks ago by MK USER under heading white smoke on start up i think you will find it answers a number of your questions and educates your mechanic and very informative. hope this helps. ps information is on second page.

i have responded to this post but it has not loaded suggest poster scrolls for my responce

kerry2017 said:

hello, can anyone help? I've bought my first camper, a 1994 Ducato (mk1). She starts, but only reluctantly after a lot of accelerator. The light for the glow plugs flashes on only for a split second. I've asked my mechanic to sort it out but he is at his wit's end, can't even find the glow plugs. The wiring on the engine seems to have been "customised" at some point, he described it as like a rat's nest. The leisure battery located behind the passenger seat won't charge while we are driving either, and he thinks this is also related to the wiring confusion. Can anyone help?

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Rats nest is quite a bit of an exaggeration on an engine that has about 4 wires going to it and only one of those can stop it starting. Sounds like he doesn't know much about electrics. Glow plugs won't come on until below 5C and certainly aren't required in this weather.

Lots of cranking is often just the return hoses perished allowing diesel to drain back to the tank when its idle. If you turn its off after its started does it start easily again? How many miles on it? Has the fuel filter been changed recently. Have you checked the strainer in the tank. After 23 years the tank could be full of wax, algae, asphaltines, rust, water etc.

corcai said:

Rats nest is quite a bit of an exaggeration on an engine that has about 4 wires going to it and only one of those can stop it starting. Sounds like he doesn't know much about electrics.

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Lol, those early campers (before Fiat installed a dedicated connector in the loom for converters) had the split charge and fridge relays with the associated wiring somewhere under the bonnet and this is probably what frightened the mechanic