Hey all, I'm brand new to the forum and I know there are rules and such about duplicating topics but basically, I got a Fabia 1.9TDI through work a month ago (with an ATD engine).

I've never owned a Diesel car before and I was aware there were a few problems with the car when I got it and knew i'd have to do a fair bit of nerding up to get my head around things.

I was told by work that sometimes the car struggles to start on a morning (or if it has been sat for more than 4 hours not running), first things first, onto google and it brought me directly to you lot with your infinite pools of wisdom.

• Changed the glow plugs (£40 for the set) easy as pie but made no difference, still problems starting.
  
• Invested in some "Easy Start" (I know people hate it but I found it really helpful and it's had no adverse affects so far)
  
• Noticed after a bit of a blast to Weymouth and back that the Engine temp wasn't registering so, got a new Engine Temperature Guage (£23) and replaced the old manky one - result the car now reads a tempareture but alas, still the same starting problem
  
• Bought some injector cleaner (£4) the stuff you tip into the fuel and let it work its magic
  
• Decided that this job may be too complicated for me, got it booked into a garage for a diagnostic, (£86!!?!) Came back with 7 initial faults, reset and had 1 fault being the Camshaft Sensor so, I asked the robbing swines to order me the sensor in and thought i'd have to just bite the bullet on this one and pay them to do what they do best.
  

Anywho, I was driving back from a family do the other night (after resorting to using EasyStart pretty much every time I needed to go anywhere) and to my horror the glow plug light started flashing off and on again at a 1 second interval, as you can imagine, I shat myself, flying down the motorway in the dead of night. I had no idea what was wrong and hoped desperately that I wasn't about to suffer some sort of major engine failure!

I managed to get in and as you do I ran straight to google, brought up you lovely bunch again, put my mind at rest as it just meant I had no break lights (I know that's still not exactly good news but it's better than having an engine that's about ready to tear itself a new one)

Here's the super confusing and possibly interesting bit, since my break lights failed, my car has started FIRST TIME every time, no need for the Easy Start, no ticking over. Literally, key in, turn to glow, turn to start and woof off we go.

And she's been consistantly starting first time everytime for 3 solid days now, even after being stood for over 12 hours (I fixed the break light switch before anyone panics and thinks i've been missioning round and asking to be shunted by someone!!)

I was just wondering if anyone at all might have a bit of an idea if this whole starting first time business is just the eye of the storm or whether I can expect to have a long and happy relationship with my car now?

This is a bit of a guess, but it does seem that you're in for lots of happy starts and miles. The brake light switch also links with the fuel supply so pressing the brake cuts the fuel. A faulty switch could have been sending all sorts of signals to the ECU including "stop the fuel".

As above, an odd link, but not totally inplausible.

PS: £86 for a scan??! I'd have it done it for free - £86 would pay for fuel from Portsmouth to Exmouth!

Heeeeeey! Thanks for responding guys, yeeeer I know I really got bent over on the price of the diagnostic, the garage charges £40 per hour on labour and didn't charge for the diagnostic itself (how unbelievably generous of them right?)

I've fitted a brand new break switch courtesy of EuroCarParts (£8) and everything does seem to be all fine and dandy now which is a bonus.

I've been getting constant first time starts with no ticking over for about a week now which is a huge relief, you should see the look on the Petrol Station attendants face when you life the bonnet and start spraying volatiles into the air intake, they reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaally don't like it haha!

It's brought the inner mechanic in me to be fair and tomorrow i'm getting down to replacing all the rear brake disks and all my break pads (She sounds worse than a train pulling into a station at the moment and I feel like i'm abusing the poor girl).

I've got a long list of small jobs that need doing but i'm having a lot of fun getting down and dirty though, sort of wish i'd not spent near enough £150 on unnecessary bits and bats but, I probably do need to do another diagnostic to see if my Cam Sensor is still failing or whether my constant cheeriness and wishful thinking has somehow rubbed off on her and she's adopting my personality paha.

Should have probably proof read that before posting, now I look a tad illiterate. xD