Slow start

[lisap16]

Thanks for adding me to the group. I have a 2008 c4 grand picasso 7 seater 1.6 auto.
Saturday a week ago I had driven about 40 minutes from home and stopped to put £20 in since I was at about a quarter of deisel. After a couple hours shopping we came back near home for a few items from Aldi. When we went to leave the car had a slight hesitation to start. When I drove it again on the Monday I felt a slight stutter when driving, with a pretty loud clatter, then a bit of a slow start when leaving Tesco. On Tuesday again the stuttering and clatter when driving. After a few minutes shopping in Asda, the car just wouldn't start, kept cranking but wouldn't start. I called breakdown out, who did nothing but keep trying, pumping the fuel petal til it started. Drove home with the stuttering & clatter, then it started when testing 3-4 times once home but was a little slow starting. On Wednesday I went to put £20 in at Tesco and put in a bottle of Rex X diesel fuel cleaner. Drove it about 4 miles, the stuttering & clatter stopped about halfway through the drive. car seemed fine for a couple days, then back to slow starting this past Saturday. New fuel filter today, started perfect half a dozen times, ran to Tesco, where the slow starting began again. No warning lights, runs good, just the slow, very delayed starting. could it still be some bad fuel left in the tank?

[GiveMeABreak]

Are you sure you haven't put the wrong fuel in? You don't say what engine you have petrol or diesel. Wouldn't be the first time I've heard this and the name Tesco.

It's possible you have picked up some gunge from the bottom of the tank. Try not to let it run too low and try using some injection cleaner for the next few tankfulls to try and get rid of any blockage already in there. A diagnostic will be useful to see if there are any fault codes showing up too.

[lisap16]

hi, yes, it's diesel & I always double check when grabbing the nozzle since I'm used to petrol cars (had this one 3 years & still double check).
I normally keep it above 1/4 but gonna start keeping it closer to 1/2. Would a diagnostic show anything with no warning lights on?

[Paul-R]

Tesco caught me out some years ago by putting the diesel nozzle between the two petrol nozzles. An unbelievably stupid choice and the worst thing was I had put nearly 50l of petrol in!

Fortunately I hadn't started the engine and was able to push it to one side until my brother could get round with his 12v pump and a couple of 25l containers. I filed it up again with diesel in the hope that any remaining petrol would be flooded with diesel. It must have worked as we ran the car for another two years.

[Rp0thejester]

If in doubt grab the diesel pump, it won't fit in a petrol car!

[myglaren]

If in doubt grab the diesel pump, it won't fit in a petrol car!

RONG!

When Covid was causing so many fuel problems, I found an open petrol station and went to full up.
Most pumps were out of use. Found one that was, put the nozzle in and was just about to start filling when I saw it was diesel.

Luckily spotted in time and found one with petrol in it.
2009 Civic.

[Rp0thejester]

If in doubt grab the diesel pump, it won't fit in a petrol car!

RONG!

When Covid was causing so many fuel problems, I found an open petrol station and went to full up.
Most pumps were out of use. Found one that was, put the nozzle in and was just about to start filling when I saw it was diesel.

Luckily spotted in time and found one with petrol in it.
2009 Civic.

Really!! That's super strange as diesel fuel pump nozzles are bigger than petrol pump nozzles for a reason!!

[lisap16]

I would think if it was the wrong fuel it wouldn't run properly, if at all. I've driven it twice today once started and it runs fine, no studdering or hesitation, just the slow/no starting at times. Just went out to try & it started right up but 2 hours ago was very slow to start.
Can I get a diagnostics done without any warning lights showing?

[Rp0thejester]

Yes

[myglaren]

Daughter bought a C3 (her first one) from a Honda dealer. While she did the paperwork they filled the tank for her.
Got halfway home (four miles) and it conked out. They had filled it with petrol, there were no Honda Diesels back then.
They did fix it though, at great expense to them.

[Rp0thejester]

[lisap16]

thanks, going to try driving a couple days to hopefully run out bad fuel, if it's still acting up I'll get it diagnosed

[MattBLancs]

Sorry to hear your issues.

Just a point Marc raised earlier, recently read much discussion about the "don't run a car on fumes" / crud in the bottom of the tank etc theories.

Conclusions made were:
- fuel pickup is at bottom of the tank, so that is the same area the supposed crud resides.
- Peugeot/ Citroen have been fitting plastic tanks for a good long while and the crud was thought mostly to be lumps of rust from steel tanks.
- fuel filter will catch crud, and more so a blockage would be more likely to restrict flow at peak load (I e. Foot down hard mid to high RPM rather than a stumbling setting off.

Diagnostic session would be best and better still looking at the live data to see if any weirdness.


I was going to mention it not being a good idea to "stick £20 in" (particularly as that's barely a thimble full at current prices!) as used to be said that would consume the DPF additive at an excessive rate. I read somewhere recently that this might be an old wives tale.

[Paul-R]

I mostly keep quiet when the old "crud in tank, keep it topped up" chestnut gets repeated. It is a thing of the past and may have been true with steel tanks but not now. A nearly empty tank presents a lot of surface area for condensation to form on and this in turn can promote rust.

You will still get condensation inside a plastic tank but it's less important as the small amount gets dealt with normally. Also, plastic will have less condensation anyway as it's a poor conductor of heat compared to steel.

[GiveMeABreak]

Also don't forget the dreaded diesel 'bug' issue!

Water and air are more prevalent in tanks that are not filled, so these conditions are ripe for fungi and bacteria to spread, causing the brown diesel sludge at the bottom of tanks that once picked up by the pump can cause havoc when they enter the fuel system.

On the Fuel pump issue, like Paul, I also got caught out on my Xantia from Tesco. Drove 30 miles before the spluttering and hiccupping started. We realised from the smell it was petrol, and luckily had not destroyed the engine being an HDi. Despite draining and flushing the tank , it never recovered, so had to cough up for a new fuel tank pump and further fuel treatments to clean it all out. Finally got it resolved after a few months!