Over the last week in the morning my car has become hard to start, it just turns over for a while before eventually firing,

It has had a new battery and glow plugs, once started it starts no problem all day long

Today had the same problem tried to start it turned off ignition, had another go, but the oil symbol came on with a bong, so turned it off for a few mins then finally got it started.

Any ideas?????

Ive heard talk & only pub talk of a tired oil pump will make it hard for the hydraulic tappets to operate properly first thing at the speed the starter can crank it at. I had similar issues on my old Mk 1 but it also smoked when it started & ran very roughly for a second or 2 ( but with no oil light) a mate who bought it is just about to change the pump so we will see, It was a very high mileage car, I sold it to him at 165000, its probably 190-200 K now

I would explore more common options that will be suggested by others soon first

Edited 5 December, 201213 yr by Stuart_J

I had the timing belt changed 2 weeks ago, if its a tooth out would it still run, but cause the first starting problem???

iv just had to crank it for a second or two longer and starts right up only issue that is i live on a steep hill and i have to drive up to get out the street and it is usually slippy so i usually take 5 mins to get out