Mondeo Turbo Diesel Poor Starting

In message , Mike Day writes

There are some crap glow plugs out there which only last a year or so. Unless you fitted decent ones like Bosch or Beru/NGK then its possible that the glow plugs are knackered already.

Also sprach "Mike Day" :-

Your tests are good as far as they go, but don't show that /all/ the plugs are working. In my experience it's worth checking each plug individualy. Just one out will make starting hard - two makes it very hard.

If your battery is only registering 12.2v then either it's not being charged properly or it's knackered. Have you tested the charge rate of your alternator?

What's the meter read when the engines running? Either your meters reading low or the batterys duff, see what the voltage drops to when you crank the engine.

Sounds like your battery isn't in the best of health. Diesels are very sensitive to battery condition. I had a problem last winter with mine (99 TD), it was hard to start when cold but fine when hot. New battery sorted it perfectly, got a Transit 2.5 TDCi (IIRC) battery which has a higher cold cranking current, slightly higher AHr rating than the standard Mondeo battery, only £50 from a local motor factors.

Before you replace the battery though, it's worth removing, cleaning and tightening all the charging and battery connectors, including the engine earth connector (connects to the gearbox under the air box). Also remove and clean the glow plug wires, the thick red wire that supplies power to them, make sure they're properly tight.

When it does start, do you get a lot of chuffing and clanking with lots of white smoke for a few seconds? Firing on two or three cylinders only until heat and pressure build up. One or more glow plugs u/s. I used to give let the old Xantia have two or three glow plug cycles before starting in cold weather. Thought it would help it along, then discovered that it's quite a bad idea-can burn out glow plugs quickly. DaveK.

I assume you've done this already but, when mine did this last year, it turned out to be a loose connection on one f the plugs. Be careful though, they look easy to shear off. Apologies if I'm teaching your granny to suck eggs (whatever that means). Dave