Engine jump on start up

[runboy]

Noticed these last few morning with the cold that on fire up, the engine on my 2.0TDi 140 makes the car rock a bit (couple of times), as if it is a real effort for the engine to fire up. I appreciate the cold, but I am surprised at the forces the engine must exert to send this judder through the car. I don't notice it as much when starting the engine during the day.

Normal or not? I'm just worried its the engine mounts or something.

[KBAKER]

Yes, I've noticed this too. And on my wife's 1.9 Tdi Fabia.

Sorry - can't help you with an explanation!

[ap0gee1978]

Try cycling the glowplugs a few times (i.e. wait for the light to go out, switch off the ignition and repeat a couple more times before starting up.) This will warm things up a bit more and help.

The other thing to consider is maybe the battery, although this will make the car reluctant to start rather than just lumpy when it does. I needed a new battery the other week as the cold snap had done for it, and it would be right on the borderline charge-wise after being out in the cold all night. The reason I mention this is that it would start fine after work when it hadn't been sat as long, and it wasn't as cold, and so I didn't think to swap it for quite a while as I (wrongly) put it down to the effect the cold was having on the diesel...

[rwbaldwin]

:iagree:

First thing to check, is that you wait for the glowplug light to go out before starting the car. It may seem obvious, but you would be amazed how many owners don't realise this.

It would probably be worth checking the glowplugs are OK. Measure the resistance of each plug. It should be between 1.25 and 1.75 ohms.

[runboy]

Cheers for the replies. Yes I make sure the glowplug light it out before turning over. It was a bit warmer this morning and there was no where near as bad a jump on start up so it must be down to the cold.