Diesel Astra starting problems

Looking for advice about morning starting problems on my 1993 160,000 mile
Astra. Basically, when the weather's anywhere near cold, it takes a few
minutes of (deeply distressing) cranking to get it started. Apart from
that, and for the second or subsequent start of the day, it starts fine.

Now, it seems like fuel starvation to me. Presumably there's a fuel pump
there and maybe that's the problem, the engine doing the job of maintaining
fuel feed the rest of the time.

Any thoughts, good people?

Thanks

Steve

 

Are the pre-heaters OK?
Does it start OK when engine warm?
Firstly I would try turning the ignition on, leaving it for ten seconds and
then trying to start it.
Thomas Bauer

 

It starts straight away when warm. Leaving the ignition on for longer makes
no difference when it's cold.

 

Sounds like the glow plugs or glow plug relay.

Next time don't crank the engine straight away. Turn the key to the first
position 3 times until you the glow plug light goes out and you hear the
"dunk" from the glow plug relay approx (8 seconds), then start the engine.
You could also check if the glow plugs are getting juice by measuring with a
DVM on DC volts for 12V between the busbar which connects them and ground at
startup.

I would expect the glow plugs to have died anyway at this age.

 

glow plugs or the glow plug relay,
check each plug with an ohms meter, they should be about 10-20ohms
anything higher 80-100ohms means they aint getting hot enough

mike

 

All of the above AND check the fuse. SWMBO Astra blew it's fuse once and
gave the same symptoms. Check that the connections from the bus bar to
the glow plugs are clean and tight.
Dave

 

If you have a 1.7 TD engine then it probably wants the tappets re-shimming.
It will be down on compression hence poor starting.

 

Thanks for the advice, all. Yes, it was the glow plugs, now replaced though
one had to be drilled out after it snapped. Apparently, it's common for
them to be rusted/welded in, so I'm glad I didn't try to tackle it myself.

Here's hoping for another 160000 miles. Incidentally, I'd be interested to
know how many miles one of these tough old cars can do. What's the record
on this NG?

Steve

 

I know of a mk1 vectra being traded in with 350000 on the clock 1.7
di (was a taxi though)