2 old diesels no start in cold wx

I have a 1998 and 1999 NB tdis that wont start.
Both have fuel treatment for ‘gel-ing’ and goodbatteries.
Not sure if this is just an old diesel thing or whatever. New glowplugs in one vehicle.
Any suggestions?
Wx is cold - minus 7 F this morning

Maybe try compression... They shouldn't have struggle too much to start in those temps.. Or make sure you have fuel all the way to the injection pump and that it didn't bleed back.
You said you have anti gelling addative, was it put in then the car ran? Just want to make sure said addative made its way into the fuel filter too.

Yes. The additive was in both and run.
My guess is compression too, but i haven’t checked. Both engines have about 240k miles

Some of the tdi’s have the glow plug cycle time set down to 3 seconds or less, if yours are, cycle them through two times turning ignition off and then back on before starting. This time can be increased using vcds.


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Car should start fine in this weather. Ours did. I suspect you've got bad glow plugs or a failed harness/relay. These cars start pretty well without the glow plugs until it gets really cold.

Also, NBs of your years need to crank at 300 RPM before they'll deliver fuel. It could be your starter/battery just isn't quite strong enough to get to that speed in this weather.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Car should start fine in this weather. Ours did. I suspect you've got bad glow plugs or a failed harness/relay. These cars start pretty well without the glow plugs until it gets really cold.

Also, NBs of your years need to crank at 300 RPM before they'll deliver fuel. It could be your starter/battery just isn't quite strong enough to get to that speed in this weather.

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At -7 F?


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Absolutely I've seen other guys on these forums as of recent having no problem with temps as far down as -9°F

Thought you were implying that was possible without glow plug heating.


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TLH_TDI said:

Thought you were implying that was possible without glow plug heating.

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No, with glow plugs. Mine's started at -25. Wasn't happy, but started.

dieselicious said:

I have a 1998 and 1999 NB tdis that wont start.
Both have fuel treatment for ‘gel-ing’ and goodbatteries.
Not sure if this is just an old diesel thing or whatever. New glowplugs in one vehicle.
Any suggestions?
Wx is cold - minus 7 F this morning

Click to expand...

What does it do, slow crank, decent crank no ignition or?
Even at a balmy -7 these cars (and 20 years) can be hard to start if everything's not in good nik.

Mine was tough this morning, I think I need new glow plugs, and my battery wasn't turning it over as quickly either. Ended up rolling it down the hill to get it running.

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If you cannot make minimum cranking RPM it will not fire. The keys there in very cold weather are (1) good battery that can deliver the current, (2) clean, good condition connections (main battery positive to starter and ground) and (3) a starter that can actually consume the current and use it to spin the engine. The latter two are often where the issue lies when it gets REALLY nasty-cold out (like the last couple of days.)

I forgot about the trick of cycling the glowplugs.
Turned the key on/off 5 times without cranking yesterday when I got home with my daughter observing.
On the 6th cycle, I cranked the engine and it fired....a bit of a shudder, but started up fine. The glow plug light was on a good 15-20 seconds in the 2 deg F temps we had.

I don't drive these vehicles anymore. My daughter left later than I for work so I didn't observe her starting 'process' in the morning.

Sold 2 diesels back to the dealer as a result of the emissions scandal. Since I don't drive them anymore, it is easy to forget the diesel tricks!
Thanks for the reminder!

It is possible to increase glow plug heat up time without cycling with vcds. Mine is about 5 to 6 seconds which I think could handle almost any temp.


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On my BEW, the pre-glow lasts ~23 seconds although the light goes out after six seconds. I see no need to cycle on and off; just wait about 15 seconds or more.