Thread: TDI Slow to fire

My 1996 TDI Disco was getting reluctant to start for the last couple of years. Had to crank forever and when it did fire I'd get plumes of grey/white smoke out the back. I had taken to giving it a shot of "Start Ya Bastard" (Ether) on colder mornings here in Melbourne to get it going.

I just thought that with 300K on the clock the injectors were due for service/replacement.

But another issue arose. On a very hot day after a long run the starter wouldn't turn over. Just made a click from the solenoid. I'd either have to tap the solenoid or cool the starter with water, or do both, to get it to crank.

Then, the starter failed altogether. The reduction gears decided to stop turning and the annulus split. So I threw in a new starer motor.

All my woes are fixed!! The motor fires with just one or two revolutions, doesn't even need to wait for glow plugs, no smoke out back - fixed the lot!! It must have been cranking slowly for all that time until the mechanical failure of the reduction drive!!

Just thought I'd share this in case anyone is having hard to start issues.

Nice work. Its good to finally find a fix to something that's been a problem for so long. Mine was similar, put up with slow cranking for months until a final failure, fixed the same way, but with the addition of a new earth lead too. There are a few other posts with similar problems, hopfully they will be fixed like this too.