Vectra 2.0 dti starting problems

[daveymaboy]

Hi all,
Had a good search round and cannot find anyone with this veccy problem.
Car starts perfectly when cold and perfectly when hot but if it's left for about 2 hours or more it takes ages to start (3 or 4 long attempts). After it does start (and the embarrassing huge cloud of smoke disperses) it drives fine.
Seems to be worse during the colder months. Any ideas anyone?

[SteveH]

Hmmmm i was going to suggest the leak off pipes , but you would get bad starting in a morning if it was that , how many miles has the car done and what years is it

[daveymaboy]

It's a 2003 with just over 100k.

[Ste]

Is it worse if you park 'nose up' rather than 'nose down' ?

The cloud of white smoke probably smells pretty bad too of an acrid kind of way? It is unburnt diesel being emitted.

[daveymaboy]

Doesn't seem to make any difference how the car is parked.

[daveymaboy]

OK here's one for the tekkies cos I'm about to give up and book the car in
further to my last post -
(Starts OK cold
Starts OK hot
Leave for a couple of hours or so and starts really badly (but always does start eventually and smokily) -

I tried disconnecting the coolant temperature sensor and it started first time, so I replaced the sensor.
This made no difference??? but it still starts good with it disconnected.
So the question in my mind now is... was it indeed a faulty sensor but a fault code needs clearing on the ecu so it can read the temperature correctly?
or..... is there another problem and disconnecting the sensor made the default ecu programme run thus bypassing whatever the problem really is.
or... something else???
Come on guys there must be someone up for the challenge on this one

[James24]

My 2.2 DTi is always easy to start when cold and hot, but more difficult when warm. It will always start first time, but it can take a few seconds.

I'll be interested to see what is found the be the problem as maybe there are some things I can check.

[dh.dti]

Lack of compression maybe??

[daveymaboy]

Thanks for the replies guys. Sometimes it takes absulutely a g e s to start - 4 or 5 long attempts and when it finally fires there is masses of light grey smoke (unburnt diesel I assume). Everytime I think of what it might be my mind tells me it can't be for another reason. I think it's one for the main dealer.

[andymagee1982]

Mine done the same!

I tried all the pipes and then replaced the Glow plugs which snapped and £1200 later i Got a new engine.

Just get it into the Local garage and have the Injector seals replaced glow plugs and a good full service. I am confident it will fix the problem.