UKC

After crashing my mountain bike back in July I haven't been able to drive my van for the last 2 months due to having seperated the AC joint in my right shoulder and associated stiffness after surgery.

Physio advice is that I can now start to drive again (and I have sufficient mobility to be able to safely do so), however the engine on my van doesn't want to start (1.3L Fiat Doblo Multijet).

Battery was predictably flat (I've borrowed a charger from a mate, removed the battery and then left it on charge overnight), the battery is now reading 12.7 V so I believe that's fairly healthy.

I turn the key in the ignition and then the glow plug warning light flashes for about a minute which suggests that there is a fault in the Glow Plug Heating System.

The battery warning light is on (although the radio happily bursts into life), the oil pressure warning light also comes on for some reason.

When I try to start it up it sounds as though the starter motor makes a very vague effort to crank the engine and then gives up).

Any suggestions on what to try to fix it?

I'm going to go and have a poke round to check that the glow plugs don't have any loose connections.

In reply to spenser:

Think you probably need a bit more charge in the battery. Can you borrow a booster battery? 

In reply to spenser:

You can have a dud battery that charges to the right voltage. We had one that charged up quickly but the next day would not reliably start engine (petrol, but a battery is a battery even if diesels need bigger batteries). Overnight or so battery voltage dropped to 5/6ths of  normal so we concluded one cell was dud with low capacity.

All was well with a replacement battery.

Be suspicious if it charges quickly* and check the voltage after trying to start engine.

It should be 6-8 hours not 1 hour or less?

Radio is copes with undervoltage and much smallef current compared to starter so a dud battery can power that.

In reply to spenser:

Same as the other replies, unfortunately your battery has had it. Get a friend or neighbour to give you a jump start to confirm it if you like.

In reply to MJAngry: Agree with the above - is the battery still reading 12.7 V after you try starting the engine, or only fresh off the charger? Sitting flat for an extended period tends to knacker car batteries so they don’t hold charge.

I’d see if you can get a jump start off someone. If it starts and runs ok with a jump, you know everything else is ok (be aware that it might well not re-start without another jump, so don’t go off to the shops as soon as you get it started!). 

If it jump starts ok but won’t re-start (without another jump) after being switched off for half an hour, a new battery should fix it. 

In reply to spenser:

Sulfated battery - will still charge to full voltage but won’t deliver enough current.  You could try a “desulfator” charger or replace the battery.  Should be able to start it with a battery booster or a jump start.

In reply to spenser:

If you put a meter on the battery and try to crank the engine you should be able to gauge the condition of the battery based on how far it drops.

In reply to wintertree:

The charger I have borrowed off my mate is a desulfator charger. I'll give the battery another go on the charger first, if that doesn't work then I'll get a new battery. Fortunately Euro Car Parts have 37% off everything this weekend so I can get a decent battery with a 5 year guarantee for £90 and it's a 15 minute walk away from me so I can fetch it tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

In reply to spenser:

A 15min walk with a car battery won't help your recovery. 

In reply to spenser:

Eurocarparts always have an online sale on! 

In reply to spenser:

Eurocarports - same day delivery for a fiver?

In reply to summo:

They only operated on my right shoulder, my left one's fine!

I'll stop and take a break if I feel the need to.

In reply to spenser:

switch lights on and crank engine- if the lights dim while cranking is usually dud battery. although 12v+ looks ok it’s all about the amps that battery can delivery and due to high compression in diesel engines you need far more ooomph in the battery than a petrol engined car

In reply to spenser:

I've carried batteries back and forth to electric fencing. I reckon most folk won't manage over 100-200m before stopping to rest or swap hands. It's the fingers, if you have a weight lifting strap that puts the load on your wrist you'll do better. 

I'd get delivery. Don't need to risk pulley or tendon damage in the good arm. 

In reply to spenser:

I ordered some headlamp bulbs online from eurocarparts and they arrived at my door 2 hours later. 

In reply to Siward:

I don't think the problem is with the lights.

;~)

In reply to spenser:

I hope it is the battery. While you’re waiting for it to arrive, get a socket or ring spanner on the bolt on the front crankshaft pulley and see if you can turn it (even if only slightly). If you can’t, then your problem is elsewhere. Fiat isn’t renowned for using high quality components, and a common occurrence when their vans are left standing for a long time outside is for (say) the alternator components corrode and seize. Easy check is to slacken off the alternator and see if the front pulley spins freely. Same goes for the aircon pump if you have one.

In reply to nic mullin:

The battery still reads 12.7 V after I try starting the engine.

I've tried plonking in a fresh battery and the engine won't even turn over, it reads 12.3V on the multimeter.

In reply to spenser:

Sorry to hear that. Paul_in_sheffield’s advice is good. It will also be worth checking that the wiring between the battery and the starter solenoid and battery negative to ground to starter motor and that the starter solenoid and motor are electrically sound (might be a pain to get to, but diagnosable with a multimeter). 

I don’t know what to make of your glow plug light if your battery is good (unless you have a bad battery negative to ground connection) - a failed glow plug shouldn’t affect turning over, but if you’re buzzing things with the multimeter, it might be worth checking that the resistance is right.

Unfortunately, troubleshooting no-starts gets more difficult if your problem isn’t the obvious electrical or fuel issues, and fuel is definitely not your (main) problem at the moment.

Good luck!

In reply to spenser:

I had a similar issue with my Transit earlier this year. Eventually tracked down the cause as being a knackered ECU. Wasn’t cheap to fix I’m afraid. 

In reply to nic mullin:

Turns out it was a dead battery AND a bad earth bond. I gave up and asked the AA to come and help, took the chap about 10 seconds to identify it!

In reply to spenser:

Glad you got it sorted and it wasn’t anything more expensive/time consuming!

In reply to nic mullin:

Good call on checking the soundness of the connections to the starter. Also worth giving the starter and the solenoid a whack with a hammer, in case the solenoid has corroded up. My advice in the previous post still stands. If it’s easy to do, take the starter out and then reconnect it out of the engine and see if it operates. Then use a sturdy screwdriver through the starter mount on the flywheel teeth to rotate the engine. If you can’t then something has seized. As previously, then check the alternator and aircon and power steering pumps to see if they’ve seized. 

Just saw that you’ve got it sorted, excellent

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

Thanks for the advice Paul, I was halfway through responding to your post when the chap from the AA turned up. I had checked the crankshaft for movement but concluded that my knowledge of which bit of the engine was which had run out by the time I was trying to figure out which pulley was connected to the alternator hence calling out the AA.