I have an issue on my Fiat Punto 1.3 Diesel 2004, it takes a long time to start on a cold morning can take a minute and a few tries to get it going, it was fine while it was warmer.

Once it has been started and driven around it will continue to start and run fine with no driving issues that day, its just in the morning it will struggle to start and seems to do this every day now, it has had a new battery too.
Some days I try first thing it doesnt start, I have then managed to start it abit later on around lunchtime, where the weather gets abit warmer.

I always wait for the glow plug light to go out, on colder mornings it does stay on a little longer then goes out as expected.

I am not getting any faults relating to glow plug light, but is it still possible it could require new glow plugs? or is there anything else it could be and worth checking?

Thanks for your help.

I would check the glow plugs. They do not last for ever.

They are quite easy to check with a decent multimeter. Better still is a multimeter with a DC current clamp measuring ability. Just clip the clamp around each of the glow plug feed wires and check that they are all pulling 10Amps each or more.

If all are not pulling any current then this would be unusual for all to have failed so one can then do a resistance check on each. If this shows good then it is most probably the power relay that has failed or other cabling / feed fault.

A glow plug fail on a 2004 Fiat will not normally result in any system errors. Just difficulty in starting.

Ditto as above. The number of cars i get in for poor starting and another garage has replaced the glow plug relay because of a fault code saying relay fault, completely ignoring the fact that if there is no current draw from faulty glowplugs then it will set that code, is ridiculous. Not wanting to pee on your chips but these glow plugs either come straight out or snap off like carrots so be careful!

maggers said:

Ditto as above. The number of cars i get in for poor starting and another garage has replaced the glow plug relay because of a fault code saying relay fault, completely ignoring the fact that if there is no current draw from faulty glowplugs then it will set that code, is ridiculous. Not wanting to pee on your chips but these glow plugs either come straight out or snap off like carrots so be careful!

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Trying to remove Glow Plugs - a bit like betting in a casino! guaranteed to bring my forehead out in beads of nervous sweat! Have you seen the length of some of them? - they would put an endoscope to shame!

Do forum members subscribe to the general benefits of peeing on things? I see a recommendation for unfreezing door locks with this method (was it jimboy?) and now we're doing it on chips. Perhaps it could be considered as a salt replacement?