Diesel Waxing at low temperature

[jbenny1]

Has anyone had problems starting their diesels over the past few weeks of cold weather?

Monday morning my little 205 Pug diesel started on the button as usual but then stopped after about 20 seconds and refused to start, cranked over fine but wouldn't fire, I was late for work so gave up and jumped in the van.

Had another go after work, I loosened the fuel union off the injector pump and pupmed the fuel primer pump on the fuel filter and diesel poured out of the hose so i know that the fuel was flowing freely. I reconnected the fuel union and bleed the fuel througn and it started fine, left it to warm up for 20 minuets and turned it off, and it restarted first time as usual. Great. But this morning it refues to start again !

I checked under the car to see if there was any diesel leaks, but nothing. I have been told that sometimes a fuel line on the vacume side of the fuel pump can crack and nothing will leak out as it's under vacume, all it does is draw a little air in and is not noticable when driving, but when you turn the engine off, the hole allows the fuel to run back to the tank and when you go to start it's as if you've run out of fuel, prime the fuel filter and it starts.

Could the extreme cold weather have caused a fuel pipe to become brittle and crack. I know there are 2 right at the back of the engine block that connect to the fuel preheater manifold.

Anyone have any other suggestions ?

[Tone]

stick a bit of petrol in with the diesel that will help say 1/2 a gallon to a full tank of diesel

[jbenny1]

I was told that petrol damages diesel fuel & injection pumps?

Does anyone know what temperature diesel starts to wax up and cause problems?

I might put a tub of diesel in the freezer tonight and see what it's like by morning, the Mrs will love me !

[caprimentle]

well i know i suffer from it when driving, my diesel pump and all the gubbing are right at the front of the engine and when driving at night, it seems to freeze up, i could lift my foot of the accelartor and the pedal will very slowly make it way back up, takes about 5 seconds where as noramlly its instantly ofcorse, mine strugles like hell in the morning to start but i think its more due to tired glowplugs, if i heat it 4 or 5 times it starts almost straight away, but if i heat it once on a cold morning i could crank it for 2 min and drain the battery before it will fire up.

[Dan]

you want some anti gel in there, something like this http://www.pttp.co.uk/automotive/die...r-anti-gel.php
im sure you can get it in any motorfactors, possibly even halfords too

[caprimentle]

well when running on chip fat your suppose to put a little white spirit in thier so in theroy a little white spirit should work in this case

[jbenny1]

Always fires first time every time, glow plugs were changed only last year so should all be ok and the chance of 2 or more going together are quite slim.

[Graham]

uk diesel shouldnt wax until its down to -15

I was told that petrol damages diesel fuel & injection pumps?

5% or less in an old non hdi system wont hurt as long as its well mixed

my diesel pump and all the gubbing are right at the front of the engine and when driving at night, it seems to freeze up, i could lift my foot of the accelartor and the pedal will very slowly make it way back up

thats proably got more to do with the damper on the pump throttle than the fuel waxing

[Graham]

the pugs are prone to leaking air in through the diaphram in the hand primer, as a temp cure at the roadside a rubber glove tied tightly over the primer button and arround its base where it attached to the filter body works

[alladdin]

well when running on chip fat your suppose to put a little white spirit in thier so in theroy a little white spirit should work in this case

thats simply to thin it down as veg oil is too thick when at normal temps never mind when cold. tho its usualy parafin or kerosine as far as i know. as an aside it reaches correct viscosity around 80 deg c which is engine temp.

the 405 pugs had a braided hose that went porous and leaked (like astra 16v etc used to) not sure about 205's. easy to prove, next time it wont start pump the primer bulb, which should go "hard" after 1 pump. more pumps mean its pulling derv back up the line. once hard it should start.

[bazpro88]

i used to have a 106 diesel and always always had to pump the thing that looked like a grenade to get the thing to start.
i got a focus tdci now and it takes ages to start when its really cold.

[duncan]

same engine in my citroen zx and it had no problem starting in the coldest mornings this year so far ..... crosses fingers and touches wood just incase lol
unlike last year when it would start but sometimes run on 3 cylinders until warm (worn injectors was the cause)
where do you buy your fuel? i only use shell as mine always seems to run poor on super market derv and more smoke on boost too

[jbenny1]

Frozze the jam jar of fuel in the freezer over night and it went down to -15 C and was still quite fluid hadn't seperated, gone cloudy, or formed any wax, but that was the diesel form a jerry cani got from BP a couple of weeks go not the fuel from the tank. I normally only get shell or BP, but the last fill up was at TESCO's, so i'll try some fresh quality fuel in there first.

I will check the seals in the fuel filter and hand primer.

It seems to start ok when it's been running and then only left for a short time, upto about an hour, but any longer and it will crank till the battery's dead, or if i pump the hand primer plunger on the fuel filter it will start but miss a bit for a few seconds, i guess until all the air is out of the injector pump.
I can't see any deisel leaks under the car where it's been parked, but i did have a hair line crack in a fuel pipe on the back of the engine ( i think it was on the diesel preheater block) a couple of years ago which had identical symtoms but i changed both pipes, and i can't believe they've gone again.