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Fri 12 Oct, 2007 11:27 am
My car will no longer start. For a while when I turned the ignition key, I had to wait between 2-5 secs for the engine to start. Now, the starter is turning over, but other than that--nothing. The glow plugs seem to be good (I tested them at the relay without removing); the battery reads 12.3V (I know this is on the low side, but even with the car jumped by my other working vehicle, the car still won't start); and I just changed the fuel filter (I've been running biodiesel for 11 months and have changed the fuel filter 4 times since then) thinking this might be the issue. Still, nothing.... Any ideas??
Are you using ASTM certified biodiesel (that is to say, are you brewing it in your garage, or buying it from a commercial supplier?)
If its your own biodiesel, my guess is that you have excess catalyst and glycerol left over in the fuel which has fried your injector pump.
If its commercial bio, it could be one of any typical diesel problems not related to the fuel. Maybe it was time for the injector pump to die. Maybe during one of your fuel filter changes you got a big bubble of air in the lines. Its also possible that the glow plugs are getting voltage, but if a significant number of them are failing they won't get hot regardless of the voltage present.
Easy stuff first. Test the resistance of the glow plugs by pulling the wires off and testing for resistance to ground. I'm not sure what the resistance should be, but they should all be within about 5% of each other. Then back the flare nut off the fuel line at the injector. Crank and see if you get fuel or air. Make sure you consult a techbook for the proper procedures for this because doing it wrong could make you lose an eye. We're talking 10s of thousands of psi there. Test the lift pump (if you have one). If its not delivering fuel to the injector pump, nothing is going to work.
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