Got a bit of a yarn to share, might save another here a little time.
Our TD4.2Ti was having a little trouble starting, then it cleared itself and all was good. But while a long way from home it started playing up again.
When cold I use the glow plugs, waiting to hear the relay open (not watch the dash light go off) and hit the key with immediate start. Hot, just hit the key and immediate start. Ran sweet and also good economy too.
What it started doing was take a bit of turning over before it would fire then run as sweet as.
Sometimes cold it would do this sometimes not, same hot, it was hit and miss. What it seemed like was the fuel needed to be pumped to the injectors as if they had leaked.
Swapped the fuel filters and they were quite clean (about 9000klm). Cut them open for a good look and no sign of water either.
There is a sensor in the thermostat housing that is part of the glow plug control, from the manual info it seemed to be OK.
The glow plugs draw 72amps, thought that would be good enough. But it was suggested I make sure all of them were working, so removed the connecting strip and they all read about 1.0 ohm. Which at 12VDC is 12amps each x 6 = the 72amps... correct.
I put Diesel Care through it hoping a bit of crud had formed on / in the injectors, not in there long so no change.
Tried a second negative to the motor direct, swear it improved but not for long.
Was thinking pump or injectors and feared the cost of such an exercise, there was no way of testing these on the car so they had to be removed.
On Monday morning it was really sluggish to start, so checked the battery which is a 10 month old Optima Yellow Top. My 1950's tester read high on the good side of the meter.... It has to be the starter cables or motor?
The cables looked good and the infra-red thermometer showed no increase in temperature at the lugs so off to the Auto Sparky we go.
He listened to my story and said I had eliminated all but the starter, well it had "one too may swims" it was shot, so corroded that the brushes had seized in their holders, bearings had seized and it had badly corroded the rest of the inside. He was surprised it still worked and said it would have a total fail any time.
Very relieved it didn't happen while in isolated areas on our own recently.
A new Hitachi starter is now kicking it into life as it used to, nothing to do with the fuel system at all!
Hope this helps if you have similar symptoms.
Cheers Macca
Edit, the car was taken to 2 diesel specialists, neither suggested the starter. But sent me away to check other parts of the system which eliminated them.
