Hi, my father in law has a 2001 octavia sdi , 1.9 diesel i think?. Has a lot of miles on it (he bought it from a taxi driver.. (plonker??).) Think it has close to 500k on it. :S

Anyway, 2 days ago, he ran out of diesel (it literally stopped), and got a can of diesel and put it in the car, tried to start it and it wouldnt start.

A day later (and a jump start off my car), we tried again, still wouldnt start, so we got some bradex easy start and sprayed it into the air intake, and it started . ran fine, but glow plug light was flashing constantly.

He turned it off, and went into the house, came out 2 hours later, started fine again, except the glow plug light was still flashing.

Now suddenly its died again, easy start wont start it, well it will spark it when it turns, but will cut out straight away. We have tried lots of things, its just dead.

Im not a mechanic, and i dont know much about cars, but is this the end of the car ? Engines done its job on 500k i suppose. lol.

Thought i would ask here, as my father in law is constantly ringing up asking me how to fix it, ive told him to get a mechanic, but he has no money at the moment (surprise).

Does anyone have any theories on what it could be at all?

Many many thanks in advance

when a diesel runs out fully, dont you have to prime the system again, i may be corrected on this,not sure how to do it in the octavia, but im sure your meant to prime it, guessing on a bulb somewhere!! this is due to the system being at a higher pressure than a petrol...

Hope it helps and gets you somewhere.

James,

thanks, i did hear about re priming somewhere, but i have no idea how to do it :(. all i know its a octavia 1.9sdi, non turbo.

Can anyone tell me how to re prime it for him please? in easy terms?

thanks

give me a bit ill get me haynes manual out if i can find it, might tell me in there

You could try filling the fuel filter with diesel first, then you may need to bleed the engine. This can be done by following one of the metal fuel lines to the top of an injector, where this line connects to the injector; undo the connector a couple of turns only (enough to let fuel/air leak past)! then crank the engine. When you have fuel coming through stop cranking and tighten the connector. It should start, if not repeat the process on the other injectors. I know this isn't your type engine but it will look simillar.

Edited 29 March, 201016 yr by smileonimpact

sorry, is bleeding the engine the same as priming it?, on my peugeot i have a squeezy bulb thing ? to prime it, i cant seem to find such a device on this octavia :(

There is no primer pump on VAG cars, like GMunday correctly describes on PSA.

I think the injectors are self-bleeding though, but you need possibly several minutes of starter churning to refill the fuel system if the car was right out.

The glow plug light flashing may be a co-incidence; it's also used to warn of brake light failures, so check to see if the brake lights work. If none of them do, replace the brake light switch.

No priming required - just keep cranking in 10s bursts every 30s (so as not to overheat the starter motor).

The fuel feed pipe from the filter to the pump usually has a transparent section - is it full of fuel?

If it ran out of fuel, the best thing I can suggest is *carefully* removing the "in" supply to the diesel filter, and filling it full of fuel and then re-secure the pipework.

The Octy does not have a self (or hand) prime mechanism. On my 306HDi, you just turned the ignition on and waited a bit, and repeated and it did it for you! On my 405TD there was a hand primer. Therefore you just have to hang on the starter motor (hope your battery is in good form! As noted above don't overheat the starter motor!

the fuel feed pipe looks like theres diesel in it, but quite a few air bubbles too.

the fuel feed pipe looks like theres diesel in it, but quite a few air bubbles too.

A few air bubbles are are common.