I have a Citroen Diesel ZX19 Turbo. It is Very hard to start when cold and takes a two or three goes to start when hot.I have replaced Glow plugs with Bosch ones from a Citroen dealer only a month ago plus an Oil/filter change 3 months ago.Engine has done 196,000kms but has had cambelt done at 190,000kms.Any ideas? Thanks

Don't just keep cranking if it don't start right away' Give the starter a break. It's getting hot because you just keep cranking on it. Any vehicle diesel has glow plugs to heat the fuel chamber to make it start fast. Be sure you are making use of the glow plugs and it will start fast. If your glow plugs are not working, find out why. Could be just the glow plug relay or connection to it. Or possibly the glow plugs are burned out. Either way, you HAVE to have glow plugs in use on a diesel upon initial start up till it's warmed up. Then will start without them. Most are automated system. You just have to wait till the glow plug light goes out to start cranking on it. I hope this helps you to more understand the workings of a diesel cold start system.

glow plugs are activated if look on the dash when you turn the ignition just before cranking and you should see a light that stays on for several seconds then goes out and then you should crank the engine ! sometimes when its really cold or the glow plugs are worn try turning the ignition on and off each time light goes out 2 or 3 times to get more heat on the plugs then start ! if this doesnt work then glow plus and system needs checking !

1: compression good.
2: glow plugs hot.
3: test fuel, does test fuel work??????
yes, you did it wrong
no, #1 or #2 caused.

Have a load test done on the battery as the glo-plugs should get very hot very quickly. Diesel engines have to have a high rpm crank speed or they will not start and will leave unburnt fuel in the cylinders ( wet glo- plugs). Every indication is that the battery is flat or is not the right capacity for the car.

glow plugs aren't heating hot enough on cold start would look into new glow plugs if that doesn't fix it i'd look further

• Even though the glow plug goes out it does not mean the all the glow plugs are working,
• Remove glow plugs.
• With a set of jump leads connected to a battery connect the earth lead to the body of the glow plug and touch the top of the glow plug where the wire is connected with the pos lead the top of the glow plug should heat up and turn red.
• Only replace the ones that do not heat up.
• Hope that helps.

does the glow plug/coil light flash at all???? once would indicate glow plug relay fault! three times would indicate FUEL pump failure! sorry never experienced two flashes....

Kind regards

Have the cold start valve replaced, it enriches the fuel mix during cold start and check the glow plugs and see if any are bad, to test remove the wires and put test meter to ohms and one by one test each glow plug with one probe to ground and one on the tip of the glow plug see it it goes close to zero if it does not move then that glow plug is bad, replace all that you find bad.

Charge the batteries. take a Reading to make sure that you are getting almost 14v to both batteries. If it is not charging then take the alternator back off and have them check it. you might have bought a bad one. There is a way to test the glow plus with out taking them out. ( Take a piece of wire long enough to reach all the glow plugs from the battery. unplug the glow plug wire.If you touch the end of the glow plug with the hot wire it should make a little spark. if no spark then the glow plug is bad. do this to each one, but one at a time)

Imagine the white smoke is unburnt diesel. Anybody standing in the middle of it will be able to tell you soon enough.

Most likely culprit is that one or two of the glow plugs aren't getting hot enough. Usually just that the plugs need replacing, but worth checking first that the busbar which runs between them all is getting +12V at the appropriate stage of the process.

A.