Thread: Info about oil/difficulty in starting

Where do you live?
Everywhere but Jindabyne or another cold place where it gets down to zero C ,15/50 should be fine.
You most probably have dirty battery terminals or a bad earth. Many people if they change the engine do not reconnect the earth from the body to the engine down near the starter.
One check you could make is run a jumper lead from the battery negative to a bracket on the engine. If it then starts fine , you know where the problem is.
Regards Philip A

I have penrite 15w/50 in my Disco 300TDI and it seems fine. Agree with Philip that electrical is most likely, but does it still start every time? It is a diesel and the battery in mine isn't exactly huge. Definitely harder to turn over when it's cold compared to hot but I consider that normal. Do you wait for the glow plugs when cold?

Yes I didn't notice diesel. You may have too small a battery.
Regards Philip A

Thanks for the suggestions, the battery is the same size that the car originally came with 660cc ns50? new, so I don't think that will be the problem as this has not always been an issue. Yes I wait for the glow plugs when starting and as stated, the car will be difficult to start first time in the cold mornings and then fire immediately on every start from then on even when I stop and start it straight away after getting it going. With regards to the earth lead, if there was a problem with this would it cause the problem only with the first start up and not any other time? I had hoped the oil would have been an easy answer. I will try the earth jumper lead tomorrow, thanks for your help guys and any further suggestions would be appreciated.

A poor earth connection comes down to the fact that you need to draw more power from the battery for a cold start than a hot start. So if the earth connection is 50/50, it maybe fine for a hot start, but struggle to provide enough power for a cold start.

Agreed, the earth's supplied from factory aren't all that great and they only get worse with age. You may want to look at replacing some of the earth straps with something bigger. The other option, the way I went. Just add amount earth.

Either way its a pretty cheap fix and can only benefit you, especially if you will be looking at a dual battery install at some stage. A quick test could be to grab a set of jumper leads, and using just the black cable connect to the negative on the battery and a clean metal surface on the chassis when you start in the morning, if it's better than its likely your earthing that's causing the issue.

Also, when you say the battery is the same size as factory, you don't mean it's the battery from the factory do you? If it is, it is probably seriously struggling to supply enough power at this stage in its life. in fact if that is the case then I'm amazed its working at all.

Hope that helps a little.

Chris

^^ He says it's a new battery. Factory sized.

Haha, blind as a bat! Three little letters that I missed when I read it!

Doh!!!

The earthing stuff still stands though. Seriously cheap fix.

Chris