Thread: 300Tdi didn't start then ran like crap this morning - very cold -6 celsius overnight

Originally Posted by TOR

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? I had exactly the same thing happen yesterday morning at Mt Hotham. Defender started reluctantly. Gave it a little throttle whilst idling for a minute, then took off. Had no power and felt like it was going to cut out. After 5-10 minutes putting along it warmed up a little and came good. I was thinking fuel supply issue, whether I didn’t have enough alpine diesel or something.
This winter it has been a bit noisy and underpowered on cold morning but comes good. It seems to also have a bit of an intermittent tapping sound.

So I've managed to solve this issue for me this winter. The car has spent two weekends now sitting in the car parks in minus temps. Both times started without a worry. On advice from a ski forum I ran the tank down to just about empty and filled it up with Alpine Diesel, then put a 300ml dose of the Lucas additive in there too (well actually I put the additive in there before I filled up so it would mix). This doesn't affect how it runs but it makes damn sure that the fuel won't gel up at all. Some have said that the Alpine Diesels aren't what they used to be and even if you're buying Alpine Diesel from the servo it doesn't mean it'll stand up to the cold properly. This was an extra line of defence for me and I haven't had a problem since doing it. I let it warm up till the engine temp is around the 15 degree mark and then take off slowly but it doesn't want to cut out or anything.

That's my take and now that's my routine.