Restarting a hot diesel -

Folks

I read on here somewhere of people discussing the merits of various temperature sensors, as a means of sorting out hot Felcia diesel engines which won't re-start.

After flattening my battery at 7am in Dublin Port trying to get on a ferry, I came up with a work-around.

The actuating coil of the relay which powers up the glow plugs always has a 12v supply, and the control system supplies the earth in order to make it switch. Therefore if you find any old thin insulated wire, you can strip 20mm off the insulation at one end and persuade it into the socket along with the right 'leg' of the relay. (If anyone wants to know, I'll look up the wiring diagram and tell you the number given to that terminal).

This wire can be led through the bulkhead and attached to one side of a push-switch - I used non-latching so as to avoid the possibility of leaving the plugs swithced on. The other side of the switch goes onto some bolt or other attached to the car body.

If you switch on and there's no glow plug light, push the button, count to 5, and engage the starter. It works fine, and the wife can do it.