Chasing a gremlin

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justbruce

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Help please.
My 07 D40 stx won't start. It does turn over.
I've checked fuel and the fuses that I could find.

Before it's last start, I had a flat battery,(headlights left on). I jump started and drove about 50km with the following issues.

Electrical symptoms:
No tail lights
No center console lights
4wd light is on, solenoid doesn't move when I turn the selector
Low beam doesn't go up/down
Probably a few more I haven't noticed.

Where do I start looking?
 
No still not going.
I fixed the tail lights, fuse.
Battery is now good
Cranks well, no firing
 
Ok start from the basics. Diesels need fuel and air and good compression. Glows aren't needed, really - they make starting easier, sure, but there has been more than one occasion when I've jumped in and simply turned the key and it's fired first go.

First thing to do: pop the bonnet and squeeze the primer bulb. It should be firm within 3-4 squeezes. If you get more than that, try to keep going until it IS firm then crank the engine over. If that worked, you have an air leak in the fuel lines/fuel filter. A common culprit is the seal of the water sensor. The sensor has to click into place and once it's in properly, the electrical connector will face the same direction as the black knob above it.

If that doesn't get it going you need to check if fuel is being injected and air is getting in. Let's move to air. Check air filter. Check that the intake of the air filter box isn't blocked. Pull the intercooler out and give it a clean with petrol (I just did mine again). Pop the grille, two 12mm bolts, two hose clamps and out it comes.

If your EGR is blocked, move on to fuel. The fastest way to know if diesel is getting into the combustion chamber (and not burning at all) is to give the engine a 10 second crank then go sniff your exhaust. Even at 300rpm the 2.5L engine will gulp 2.5 * 5 * 300/(2*60) = 31 litres of air in 5 seconds. Crank it for 10 and a standard exhaust (which holds around 50 litres of air) will be saturated with whatever went into the engine.

If there's no smell of diesel then your injectors aren't opening. Assuming the primer trick was already tried, injector opening is governed by the ECU. Might pay to check the ECU's connection (and particularly the earth connection). I would also look in the positive terminal and make sure the fuses in the plastic block are all intact.

There's a few things to tinker with anyway. Hope some of it helps!
 
Thanks Tony.
I tinkered with everything and eventually got it going, once.
It took about 3 minutes of cranking, (2 full batteries worth).
When it was going, the idle was really rough. I disconnected the injectors 1 at a time, every one of them appear to be working, (the engine goes super rough each time).
I drove it around the block, it felt like limp mode.
All the electricals worked until I turned on the lights, it blew the tail light fuse. This killed all the lights in the centre console and disabled the 4wd selector.
When I put my foot down, it blew more black smoke than a 70's Kenworth.
I stopped playing with it for the day and recharged the batteries.

This morning I had another try. Cranked until 2 batteries ran out. It would occasionally cough, like a cylinder had fired once.
When I pumped the accelerator while cranking, black smoke filled the yard.
Other than a short in the tail lights, what would be most likely to cause it to over fuel?
 
Blocked intake? Do those have a butterfly setup in the intake system? Maybe the control mechanism for that has failed and it is stuck closed.
 
That's the throttle body. Yes it could fail. As could the EGR. If you're getting BLACK smoke then you've got partial combustion. White/grey smoke is near zero combustion.

I'd suggest an air blockage as well. The throttle body valve is about $500 to replace, the EGR can be blocked easily (if it's already blocked, you need to CHECK the blocking plate to make sure it doesn't have a hole in it).
 

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