Stuart Noble wrote:
Grumps wrote:
squelchy wrote:
In message , OxSc
writes
Petrol will damage the fuel *injection* pump. The fuel injection
pump operates at very high pressures, and is built to very fine
tolerances. It relies on the fuel for lubrication; petrol doesn't
fit the bill.
Speaking as someone who used to control field engineers and having
had to arrange for their diesel tanks to be emptied and refilled
with diesel on more than one occasion (all within 15,000 miles of
new) after the muppets filled them with unleaded and drove off, we
never had a single incident that cost us more than two tanks of
fuel and the garage costs for pumping out and disposal of the fuel
(how much does it cost to put the fuel in a breakdown truck?). We
ran the cars for over 100,000 miles and never replaced a pump, in
fact we never replaced anything in the fuel system apart from the
filters. 13 Peugeot 406HDIs, one Renault Espace 2.2DT and an Audi
A6 1.9Tdi.
Hi

the main reason I thought it could be the battery is due to the fact
that I have had this problem happen to me with a petrol car as well
it seemed that the engin was turning over fine with out any run
down but it terned out that the batery conections where lose only
slightly and because this slight loss of power it caused the engin
to not start first time occationaly like in your case as has
already been sied the compression rate on a deisal is higher there
for it needs more juise to get it going and to heat up the glow
plugs if your battery is chargeing properly it will not always
start properly I would put it down to this first before taking it
to the BMW people that will charge you a fortune to just open up
the bonnet (from previous main dealer experiance) Clint Sharp wrote:


OK. Our local garage (not BMW main dealer) has checked all possible
issues and has found nothing! Of course, the engine starts perfectly
at the moment. One thing they noticed was that the fuel filter is
new(ish), and wondered if there was a fault with this or its
fitting. How exactly does a fuel filter work, and what would cause
it to sometimes stop the engine from starting?
Didn't see the beginning of this and I'm no mechanic but, whenever
I've had starting problems, it's always been the glow plugs. Cheap and
usually easy to fit

Indeed. Our old BMW had constant starting problems which was fixed with a
new glow-plug set (but I don't remember them being cheap or easy to fit).
The current car has just had the ok on its plugs.