Just a way to enforce what you should do anyway (depress clutch, foot on brake, start car).
Aren't they all common rail nowadays, which removes the need to pre-heat the cylinder ? I vaguely recall FIAT made a bit of a gaffe by having to sell the technology at a knock-down price, and it's now the standard for diesel cars.
Or maybe it did ...
Mine still has a glow plug lamp on the dash, to start you have to have your foot on the brake, and then prod the key, which heats for as long as it decides in necessary then cranks until it starts.
Normally the plug lamp is only on for brief glimpse, couple of mornings lately it's been on for longer, after which the cranking has still taken longer.
It was the change from indirect injection engines to direct injection that did away with the need (in most weathers) to wait for glow plugs. In IDI engines the injector injects into a pre-combustion chamber and the cyclinder compression ratio is lower. Consequently in cold weather, compression alone wasn't sufficient to ignite the fuel.
In DI engines there is no precombustion chamber and the compression ratio is highter. Glow plugs are still used to reduce emissions during the warm-up period though.
No it doesn't.
All diesels have a glow plug, but few bother to inform you of the fact.
I DO know that on the Freelander (BMW diesel) if I wait for the glo plug light to go out, it starts instantly with very little smoke.
The light only comes ON when the engine is very cold. So in normal operation outside of winter, the glow plugs are not required, but they are still there for subzero cranking :-)
I have vivid memories of trying to start a tractor whose glo plug had gone..removing part of the air intake and tossing in a bit of diesel soaked rag that was then lit..
its needed in cold weather.
wait till the light goes out, and then pause a second, then crank.
diesels hate cold starts.
My Dad used to tell stories of using an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the cylinder head on lorries and tanks in the army during national service, and lighting fires under the fuel tank. (Not the British army - this was proper mountain cold).
better to heat the whole block...cold oil is a bummer!
yes, of course
Previous car I got that choice, turn ignition on, wait for plug light to go out, then start. Current car, press button, it decides how long to heat for and when to start (and stop) cranking.
Or use a real glow plug (12 bore starter optional)
They dont make em like that any more!
Thank god..
Dunno, it hacks me off, but nowhere near as much as the "contactless ignition key" on the Renault Scenic. French + electronics = shit. I had one on hire a couple of years ago, took bloody ages to get it to switch the engine off, even pulling the key from the slot on the dash didn't do it.
Why?
The car is in neutral, the handbrake is on, if the car is in any way dodgy I'll have my left foot on the clutch to reduce the spinning mass a little, and I want my right foot ready to hit the accelerator to keep it going when it fires. I've once or twice had cars that just won't start without a whiff of accelerator, they'd be interesting if you needed your foot on the brake.
Andy
The technique is called 'Heel and Toe'. It just requires some practice to perfect.
Heel and toe it mate.
Many moons ago (in the US) my parents had an old Chevy with a preselector gearbox. The handbrake was very weak so my parents always left it in gear. Unfortunately, you couldn't then select neutral until the engine was running.
Consequently, you needed a foot on the clutch, a foot on the brake and one to jiggle the throttle with. Okay, you could heel and toe the brake and throttle but it had a floor starter pedal/button as well. At this point we were pressed into service. ;-)
Tim
Clutch. Wot that? Clutchless self-shifting manual in mine.
Reminds me of some correspondence many years ago in a motoring magazine, where somebody was saying that he liked to have the handbrake on the outside, as some cars did at that time, so that he could release the brake at the same time as putting the car in gear. He was asked in return if he declared his third hand, the one he held the steering wheel with, as a disability.
I've never done that. Was never taught to do that, and see no reason to do that. Fwiw, I always check it's out of gear and handbrake is on anyway, so avoids the need for that. Apart from that, the idea of imposing a fairly hefty clutch bearing load on a stone-cold bearing and crank thrust washers is just plain daft.
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