strating problem

[rox]

hi all,
just wonder if any MB Citan owners could give me some advice please ?
a few weeks ago my glow plug symbol stopped appearing on the lcd screen and the engine seemed reluctant to start, I took the van to a garage had the glow plugs and relay changed on the say so of the mechanic and they gave it me back, "fixed" .. next morning came out to start it, still no glow plug symbol and still difficult to start the engine, so back I went, they ran it thru a diagnostic, no codes were stored, they tinkered with the computer gave it me back and said its fine and that I shouldn't see my glow plug symbol in warm weather only in really cold weather, low and behold next morning still I have the problem of the engine not firing straight away (I've owned the van for 5 years, I'm a courier so the engine gets turned on and off approx 100 times a day, previous to it not showing I have seen that glow plug symbol every time I started the engine, even if only briefly ) so I then goes to see an auto electrician, another diagnostic test and still no faults showing, their answer was "most vans don't fire straight away" why no one will listen to me when I say for 5 years I've had a glow plug symbol and an engine that fired immediately and since that glow plug symbol stopped showing the engine has become lazy to fire and doesnt idle nice for the first few minutes while its cold but runs fine once its warm, I just don't know, (some mornings the time it takes to fire is longer than other mornings, I have filmed it but can't seem to attaches it to this post)... can anyone help or advise what to test, swap, fix ?? I'm worried that once winter comes I'm going to have worse trouble starting the engine so any suggestions would be gratefully received... thanks in advance

 

[whitenemesis]

If there is a problem with the glowplug system there will be codes stored.
What diagnostic system was used?
As it's basically a Renault have you tried a Renault garage?

 

[Petrol Pete]

Hi rox and welcome the "most vans don't fire straight away.." comment would have me take the van to a different garage. You know your van and how it behaves, time for a second and third opinion.

It defiantly sounds like a glow plug issue and it will get worse in colder weather. Drive it around a bit so it can start to store codes and get the codes read by someone with a decent reader or STAR.

Best of luck

 

[rox]

If there is a problem with the glowplug system there will be codes stored.
What diagnostic system was used?
As it's basically a Renault have you tried a Renault garage?

hi don't know what diagnostic system was used sorry, I was just a local garage ... I was thinking about a Renault specialist, thanks I'll Google it an see if there's one local ... thanks for the advice.

 

[rox]

Hi rox and welcome the "most vans don't fire straight away.." comment would have me take the van to a different garage. You know your van and how it behaves, time for a second and third opinion.

It defiantly sounds like a glow plug issue and it will get worse in colder weather. Drive it around a bit so it can start to store codes and get the codes read by someone with a decent reader or STAR.

Best of luck

hiya thanks for replying... I'm now in the process of finding another mechanic as the first two I've seen are just dismissing everything I say and fob me off with the standard Google response lol ... I'll try a Renault or merc specialist I think... cheers for the advice