I've had my Bravo for 3 months now, and just topped 2000 miles. Its my first diesel car. The last few days it has had an intermittent starting problem. Up till now, I've waited for the glow plug light to go out, turned the key, and its started within about 2 or 3 compressions. Now about half the COLD starts, it turns over for for about 5 to 10 seconds before it fires up. It then runs perfectly.

When it messes about, the preheater light illuminates "as normal", and there is a click from the dash as it goes out. I'm thinking faulty relay or connection in the glow plug circuit. Any thoughts? Would this show up on a fault memory?

Its not a great problem at the moment, but when it gets colder.............

Hi mate,

The cold start system does a self diagnosis, and if it detects a fault, then the glow plug light will flash for about 30 seconds after it goes out. Fiat examiner can check its operation in more detail however. How long is the glow plug light staying on for before it goes out?
Secondly, when you turn the ignition to MAR, do you hear the fuel pump prime? (whurring) Do you hear any gurgling at all??

Alan

a1ant said:

Hi mate,

The cold start system does a self diagnosis, and if it detects a fault, then the glow plug light will flash for about 30 seconds after it goes out. Fiat examiner can check its operation in more detail however. How long is the glow plug light staying on for before it goes out?
Secondly, when you turn the ignition to MAR, do you hear the fuel pump prime? (whurring) Do you hear any gurgling at all??

Alan

Click to expand...

The glow plug light is only on for about a second, two at the most, and its always been like that. The light just goes out and stays out, no flashing. I'll have to listen for any whirring or gurgling in the morning.

When I first turned on the ignition this morning, the heater fan and radio were on, so I turned these off, and turned of the ignition. I then turned the ignition on, and heard the fuel pump whirring at the back for a second or so, but no gurgling. By this time the glow plug light was out, so I turned the key to start, and it started perfectly. I'll have to see how it goes this evening now!