citeroen beling 1.9d van wont start

berlingo1 · Post by **berlingo1** » 14 Dec 2008, 14:03

hi guys,i have a problem with my van not starting i have had new battery new starter new plugs and new filter it only seems to do it every so often and once its started it fine all day but it always seems to be on the day i really need it any ideas?ive had all wiring and that checked

Post by **Peter.N.** » 14 Dec 2008, 22:36

Is the starter actually turning the engine over when it wont start or is it dead? If it is you have a fuel supply problem, if its perfect for the rest of the day it doesn't sound like air ingress, more like a sticking stop solonoid or failure of the 12 volt supply to it.

berlingo1 · Post by **berlingo1** » 15 Dec 2008, 08:41

it turns it over but it just does not fire becoming a right royal pain as i am self employed.....does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to it almost as if its just when it feels like it trying to think if its always when its cold but i dont think it is

Post by **Peter.N.** » 15 Dec 2008, 09:41

Do you get any smoke from the exhaust when you are trying to start it? Try pumping the primer untill it goes hard before you start.

berlingo1 · Post by **berlingo1** » 15 Dec 2008, 09:54

peter,
done what you said with primer and it started ........at least can now work today cheers

Post by **Peter.N.** » 15 Dec 2008, 10:00

Well done

You obviously do have air getting in somewhere.

Post by **CitroJim** » 15 Dec 2008, 10:01

An XUD need three things to start: Preheating (always - hot or cold), fuel and compression. Loose any of the three and no start.

Peter, your smoke test is good. If it will not start and emits No SMOKE at all, this indicates no fuel is reaching the injectors. If it smokes white/grey smoke whilst not starting, this indicates that unburned fuel is going straight out of the exhaust, signifying either a loss of pre-heating (glowplugs not working) or a loss of compression.

Some XUDs can suffer from the valve clearances closing up to the point that when cold, the valves are just held off their seats, resulting in a dramatic compression loss. A quirk of the XUD is the valve clearances are tightest when they are stone-cold and it takes a mere whiff of heat to expand things sufficiently to allow the valves to close and the engine to start.

My bet here is that the glowplug controller is intermittently duff and now always engergising the glowplugs. Temporarily wire a small bulb on to one glowplug, visible from the dash, to see if this is the cause.

Post by **CitroJim** » 15 Dec 2008, 10:03

Peter.N. wrote:Well done You obviously do have air getting in somewhere.

Excellent

Makes my post above a bit surplus to requirements now

Replace your leakoff pipes as a first step.

berlingo1 · Post by **berlingo1** » 15 Dec 2008, 10:13

sounds like a job for a mechanic

Post by **CitroJim** » 15 Dec 2008, 10:24

berlingo1 wrote:sounds like a job for a mechanic

No, actually quite simple. Look at your injectors and you'll see little black rubber pipes daisy-chained between them and going off to the fuel return line on the pump. The last injector has a rubber blanking cap where another leakoff pipe would go if there were more injectors.

Pop into your local factors and pick up a leakoff pipe kit. This'll have about a yard of pipe and a new blanking cap.

Replace like-for-like and job done!

These pipes run hot, go brittle, leak and let air into the fuel return line which in turn empties the pump of diesel over time.