207 1.6HDi non-starting.

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 04 Jan 2010, 18:24

I'm quite ticked off about this actually:

Yesterday, car running fine, driven over a hundred miles. This morning, with -7 showing on the temperature display, key in, glowplugs run, turn key to start and nothing happens. Que? Turn it back and forth from start a couple of times and I can hear a relay (a small one, not the starter solenoid) clicking in and out as I turn the key from "ignition" to "start" and back, but still no cranking. At this point the car drops into "economy mode", which as I understand should make no difference to starting, but is very bloody annoying as I now have to push the car out of the way without being able to open the window and steer the car while pushing.

Come back to it this evening, (at just -4) and there's still nothing, just the rather pathetic click of this relay somewhere (sounds like it's on the nearside on the bulkhead somewhere) but nothing from the starter motor.

Given that the car has under 5k miles on it, I can't imagine anything has broken. The first thing I want to do is see if there is a 12v feed reaching the starter motor. First question... where the hell is it? This is not my car and I'm not overly familiar with it. A look under the bonnet suggests it may be on the back of the engine, accessable from underneath.

If there's no "start" feed to the solenoid (which I have a horrible suspicion there won't be) am I then looking at ECU issues?

spider · Post by **spider** » 05 Jan 2010, 15:03

I think the click may be the BSI, I'm sure the later multiplexed ones don't have the "start" feed from the switch straight to the starter, as you`ll sort of notice a slight "delay" between turning the key and the starter operating (normally) compared to earlier models.

Sorry that's no real help.

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 05 Jan 2010, 18:16

Not as serious as first expected.. One blown 25A fuse in the underbonnet fuxebox.

A blown fuse on a 5k mile old car... I am seriously unimpressed.

spider · Post by **spider** » 05 Jan 2010, 18:24

Good to hear it was a quick simple fix, it's possible it may have just been a poor quality fuse etc, the same way you can have a bulb go at any time.

If it does not happen again then I'd not worry.