eratic starting

[DAW]

My 2.0 dti is starting eratic in the morning and sometimes smokes on start up. Somebody has said it is one of the glow plugs faulty.
Any suggestions?

[GARY3306]

Could be a faulty glow plug. As a quick check, get yourself a short length of vehicle electrical cable, enough to reach from the battery pos terminal to all the furthest plug away from the battery. Bare bothe ends and whilst touching one end to battery pos, lightly brush the other end over the end of the glow plug, if the glow plug is OK you will see slight sparking. If it is open circuit, there will be nothing. If you find one off, I would recommend renewing all of them at the same time. HTH

[SXi 2.0t]

Possibly glow plugs but they are not the most common reason for poor/erratic cold starting. Most ommon problem is seals between injectors and the cylinder head. the seals harden and cause a compression loss from cold. can be checked by carring out a pressure test on the injector pipes when engine is cold if pressure drops they need replacing. If it takes a long time cranking over it can be the first signs, does not seem to affect warm starting unless they are really shot. hope this gives u an insight. bad news its about a 4 hour job to replace them, expensive on labour parts about 40 - 50 quid