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Starting problem

A

Accordial

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Location
London
Car
2005 2.2 D Tourer
So I went to take the car for a run to charge the battery yesterday. Bit slow turning over, but then it hasn't moved for a month, and it can feel a bit slow if it hasn't driven for a while, but started first time. And the engine check light came on. Drove 20 miles/for an hour. Stopped for five minutes and then tried to restart it. It took six goes. This car has never not started first time.

Called the AA man who looked at the car and said 'I bet it's glow plugs'. Fault code was indeed glow plugs. He seemed pretty knowledgeable, he'd been a diagnostics tech at Vauxhall before the AA. He said change the plugs.

But if it's the plugs, why is it difficult when starting from hot?

Thanks in advance.
 
It’s not your glow plugs mate. More likely a fuel delivery issue coupled with weak battery cells.

when was the fuel filter last done and was it a genuine Honda item? How strong is the battery? These engines need good cranking power.
 
Hi F6HAD, thanks for your thoughts.

The Fuel Filter is a proper Honda one, I bought it myself and watched him put it on, August 2018 - since when the car has done 8k miles. AA man said the battery was fine, and it's two or three years old. And whilst it definitely felt a bit weak when I first started it, not unreasonable after sitting for a month, by the time it had run for 20 miles over an hour and had a hot engine it was cranking beautifully - I just had to try several times to get the engine to start.
 
How about the fuel pressure relief valve? Common on these engines to go. Symptom of this would be difficult start when engine is hot.
Loads of threads on it.
 
Yes my next thoughts also point to pressure relief valve, especially if it’s doing it when hot. If you’re confident the battery is fine and fuel filter ok then most likely is that, otherwise a bad injector. Glow plugs wouldn’t cause this especially when warm.
 
Agreed, obviously not glowplugs given the continuing problem with hot starting.

Interestingly, the remote central locking stopped working at the same time as the engine management light came on (or at least, after I'd driven the car a bit and stopped the remote central locking no longer worked). My own thought at the time was that the two were connected and that it was an electrical fault rather than mechanical. So I pulled all the fuses out to check them; they were fine. After that the central locking now worked (though not the electric tailgate) thus suggesting that by taking the fuses out (rather than using a multimeter to check them) it rebooted the relevant ECU. Then the AA man reset the fault code. Then I left the car for 24 hours. And now it works perfectly - starts first time, the boot works, the central locking works.

So F6HAD I think you were on the right lines, the battery was short on charge the car having sat for a month, this confused the ECU, it thought the glow plugs were on the way out as it registered a lower current than normal going through them (the voltage being down) , and the central locking/tailgate ECU joined the party. At this point I'm going to ***ume the battery itself is fine, but I'll go and take the car for a spin in two weeks' time. Any more problems like this and it's a new battery.

Thanks for all your help, everybody.
 
I think we’ll see a lot more issues like this with the lockdown and everyone’s cars sat unused for weeks on end. Always look at the simple things first. Glad it’s sorted.
 
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