Hard Startin Delica L300

[philmeup1]

Hey folks, been a while since I’ve been on here. I have a ‘93 L300 that doesn’t get many miles put on it, even though it’s my primary vehicle.

Anyway, lately I’m having difficulty starting it up when it’s cold. I live just north of Toronto in Ontario, and usually it’s pretty good. But it went down to-10•C last night, and it was sputtering some for about 10 seconds before it finally smoothed out this morning. I’ve also noticed when it’s not very cold outside, it sometimes takes the engine to crank over several times before it catches. Usually it’s instantaneous.

It’s been a while since I’ve put new glow plugs and a fuel filter in it. I’m thinking I might try these simple things first. Does anyone else have any suggestions? It used to have a magnetic oil pan heater, but it fell off years ago. Perhaps another one of those would also help.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks everyone

Phil

[deskinthewoods]

Hey Phil! Glad to hear you still have your L300!

I'd bench test the glow plugs first for sure. I installed a bypass switch even though my controller still works (pre-emptive!) and on cold days I'll press that for a few seconds to even out the "chugging" after the glow plug controller does it's thing. I think I have one glow plug failing...

Cheers,
Alex in Wakefield, Qc

[philmeup1]

Thanks for the reply. I don’t mind changing out the plugs. This thing owes me absolutely nothing as it’s been an incredible vehicle over my 10 years of ownership. I’m not all that technical, so I think I’ll start with this and perhaps a change of the fuel filter. I’ll post the outcome once I’ve had the work done. Hopefully it does the trick

[Morganizer]

Cold start is difficult, but starting a warm engine is normal? Most likely cause is your ECU has failed, and the glow plugs aren't illuminating at all. You can, "hot wire" the glow plugs by applying 12v from the battery to the glow plug bus, for a few seconds before starting the engine. You can do this by raising the engine cowl, so you have access to the engine bay while sitting in the driver's seat (neat benefit of the cab-over design). [note, this is slightly dangerous, because the wire you use to do this is at 12v, while the whole chassis of the car, anything metal, is ground, so touching it to anything will cause a massive spark!]

ECU's used to be $1000, but I've seen them for as little as $200 recently. Or in some instances, you can do a board-level electronics repair to the existing unit. Which is what I did with mine. : ) The ECU is located in the driver's side B-pillar. A lot of people install a manual glow plug switch instead.

- Morgan