Hi, I like a lot of people have a cold start problem, the van will eventually start with a sniff of cold start (although have been advised to use WD40 instead!?!)

I had the van in the garage and asked them to change the glowplugs whilst they were doing other work.

They said it had only one glow plug which they changed (I thought this curious at the time but have read of some models having one as a flame).
despite this I am still having problems starting when cold, the amber coil light has only ever come on for a seconds then gone out no matter the temperature when warm starts no problem, when cold can take ages (4 or 5 attempts).
I have tried the turn on a few times before starting etc but to no avail.

Last thing I need to check is the Glowplug relay, anyone know where it is housed please?

many thanks

forgot to add ..2005 Ducato X244 2.8JTD model

I can confirm that on my x244 2.8 JTD, the "glow plug" indicator light only illuminates very briefly.

The thermal starter relay, is hidden under the large plastic cover in centre of the engine bay. Vacuum hose, small coolant hose and two M6 flanged nuts need releasing/removing for access.

The control supply for the relay is protected by F11 (15A) in the engine bay fusebox. This fuse supplies several other circuits, incuding oil vapour heaters at the front of the engine. These heaters are a known source of problems.

The power supply for the thermal starter via the relay contacts is via maxi blade fuse F02 (50A) in the engine bay fusebox.

If you remove the cover of the engine bay fusebox, please be aware of the main high current supply connection at the LHS. If this is shorted to chassis there is a risk of injury, and blowing the midi fuse at the battery +ve terminal which will stop you going anywhere. If in doubt, remove battery -ve connection, as a precaution.

Please post on what you discover, it may help others.

99% of 244 have a flame strart rather than glowplugs, you do not need this to start at any UK temperatures so you're barking up the wrong tree. Most likely you have a bad injector or two.

Hi Corcai, thanks for the reply and explaining the flamestart (although I will have to look more into it to understand how it works!) if it were an injector then surely it would always have trouble to start ? It started fine first time today at 9 degrees centigrade without trouble. If it goes to around 2 degrees then it struggles .also, when the engine is warm after struggling to start it is also fine. Any explanations would be really welcome.
Thanks

Davdel said:

Hi Corcai, thanks for the reply and explaining the flamestart (although I will have to look more into it to understand how it works!) if it were an injector then surely it would always have trouble to start ? It started fine first time today at 9 degrees centigrade without trouble. If it goes to around 2 degrees then it struggles .also, when the engine is warm after struggling to start it is also fine. Any explanations would be really welcome.
Thanks

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The tolerances in the injectors are of the order of 1 micron, even tiny amounts of expansion and contraction with temperature can result in leakage internally in the injector that allows the pressure in the rail to leak off into the return. The ECU will only fire the injectors when the rail reaches a particular pressure somwhere around 200 bar for your engine. So you could be cranking all day at 199 bar and it won't start. Whereas when warm and the injector parts expand it might make 201 bar and start every time.

When its cold, remove the return hoses and crank it, you will probably see one injector leaking a lot more than the others.