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PP2000

I bought the above in September last year. It goes well apart from cold starting on colder days. I replaced the glow plugs, paid for by the dealer in Invercargill, but no difference at all. I give it 2 pre heats, which helps a bit, but the motor smokes and misses for about half as minute till it warms up. This is embarrassing! The motor does not use any oil, I've done about 15,000 k since purchase, so the total today is around 170,000 km. The air filter is cleaned often and I replaced the fuel filter recently. I change the oil at 5000 k and its filter at 10000 k.
One other thing, the clutch judders when taking off, not all the time though.
Any comments on those issues would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Paul

jbiddle

One tends to think the worst when you hear of hard starting issues with a Diesel particularly if work on glow plugs etc has already been done and not had a positive effect.

Diesels are a compression ignition engine and any drop in cylinder compression is going to create a hard starting problem. To confirm or eliminate an issue in this area, I suggest you get a compression test carried out on the engine.

The fact it misses and blows smoke after start up is not a healthy sign either.

Forget about the clutch until the engine is sorted Paul. Regardless of what the engine problem is, I’m sure it’s not going to be a cheap repair.

For what it’s worth it sounds like a full clutch overhaul is on the cards to eliminate the judder.

PP2000

Thanks for your reply.
I'll get a compression test done when I have the spare money. I guess that would be about 1 - 1.5 hours work?
Thanks,
Paul

PP2000

My Navara got progressively harder to start 2 weeks ago and finally failed to start one morning. I had it towed to the garage where they found 3 glow plugs had failed. After getting a new set, it hasn't missed a beat since and starts easily with no smoke. It shows the last set were obviously faulty! So much for trust in new parts.
Thanks for your help.