Peugeot Diesel woes

[reallyloud]

Before I start yanking all wires and sensors out, I thought I'd ask if any one has had the same issues with their Diesel lump. The car refuses to fire up, and at the turn of the key there seems to be a ticking/clicking noise coming from a unit near the battery - I assume its the Heater plug relay. The warning lights on the console flash in sequence to the clicking noise. Incidently the car won't jump start neither - related? I'm wondering whether its the fact that the battery is ultra weak or whether there is a problem with the glow plugs set up.The engine is a DW8 and is normally pretty reliable and starts up within seconds.

[Dead_E23]

Can you test whether there's any voltage to the glowplugs? That'll help you decide if the relay's at fault. Also, when you say the warning lights flash, do you mean that they go dim when the relay clicks? If so, could be a dud battery (especially now the weather's getting cold) and that would make jumpstarting harder. Try connecting the -ve jump lead straight onto the engine block instead of to the dud battery - can make the difference between starting and not.

[reallyloud]

Also, when you say the warning lights flash, do you mean that they go dim when the relay clicks?

There is a slight dim, but the icons flash insync with the clicking noise.I did connect the -ve to the earth as opposed to the battery, but I'll try it with a fresh battery tomorrow.

[Dead_E23]

Do they flash quite quickly? I'm wondering if the load from the glowplugs might be dropping the battery voltage enough to de-energise the relay. (Either that or you've got some newfangled warning light flasher...)Sounds like you're trying to start it from a slave battery? You'll need a good one to do that - best to swap it for the suspect battery, imho. I had a similar problem with my Defender last year where it wouldn't jumpstart, and was just on the point of pulling the starter motor (nasty job) when I swapped in a different battery on a whim. Instant result

[r.welfare]

Sounds like a battery issue, but I had a similar problem with one of my 405s a while back - didn't respond to a jump start straight away, but would then fire after a while. Turned out to be a terminal starter motor - so I'd have a go at whacking it with a hammer first.

[Richard]

Either that or a bad connection somewhere, quite possibly an earth strap. Clip a jump lead between the battery negative terminal and the engine and try again.Operating the starter with a broken earth cable can cause the current to return through the throttle and clutch cables, which does them no good.