XC60 Not Starting.

[wimorrison]

Originally Posted by wilbydoughboy

My suggestion is could it be a problem with glow plugs. I had a 1.8 diesel escort and before it would start the glow plugs had to warm up and then the engine turned over to start. With the modern diesels it doesnt seem to need this warming up of the glow plugs but I would assume that there must be some type of system to warm the plugs. I replaced the glow plugs and all was well.

The XC60 d5 delays starting until the glow plugs have heated the manifold - you can see this by looking at the dash on a cold morning where you will see the yellow coil light up and the engine will not attempt to start until the light has gone out, a delay of only a few seconds, but the preheater delay nonetheless.

It is only a few seconds now as the heater is a ceramic plug which is much more efficient than the old coils.

[Steveee]

Originally Posted by GPac65

So today after further 3 days at dealer, go to collect car from dealership who confirm the car starting first time all the time.

Car gets delivered from workshop to showroom ready to collect, and I jump in and 'tad da' it fails to start ( that will be the forth breakdown in a month).

To be fair the service manager immediately got their top tech on it. He arrived with a PC to plug in, so hopefully will hear soon as to what the issue is causing the problem.

So what was the final diagnosis?

[fatneck]

Would be very interested to hear what happens here. My XC60 started doing this last week. Worked great yesterday but failed to start this morning. Tried several times today. She is turning over but.won't fire up. Tried both keys and the shake solution but to no avail. Will try it again in the morning. Volvo dealer doesn't know the cause as no warnings are coming up on the dash.

[fatneck]

Tried to start my car this morning. No joy. This is a real pain.

[Fat Magpie]

To me thats a lack of fuel, my old hilux had a glow plug control unit failure but if you cranked long enough she would start without any pre heating. The repeated cranking and compression providing the heat for initial ignition. AFAIK all diesels are the same, they will start eventually minus glowplugs.

[Lamp Swinger]

fatneck,

Have you tried wiggling the gear selector while trying to start the car? Assuming you have a geartronic, of course? I'm not sure if with a Volvo the engine still turns over, but locks out the fuel?

David

[xco]

Originally Posted by Voltan

I imagine that perhaps the battery was making poor contact in the key fob which shaking fixed. It's like taking the cover off the tv remote and shuffling the batteries which often revives the remote.

My thoughts exactly.

[Voltan]

Originally Posted by fatneck

Would be very interested to hear what happens here. My XC60 started doing this last week. Worked great yesterday but failed to start this morning. Tried several times today. She is turning over but.won't fire up. Tried both keys and the shake solution but to no avail. Will try it again in the morning. Volvo dealer doesn't know the cause as no warnings are coming up on the dash.

This is similar to the trouble a friend had last week with her old Corsa. The car had started earlier in the evening with a bit of perseverance but later the engine would turn over but would not run at all. The RAC agent who attended squirted fuel into the air intake and the car ran for a few seconds until that dose was used up. He reckoned, correctly, it was a sensor problem on the cam shaft. Turned out it was two sensors that were faulty.

[fatneck]

Hi Folks.
My car is half full of fuel so it may be the sensor problem, although I would have expected some sort of warning on the dash but there are none. Tried the gearshift wiggle David but no joy. Problem is I can't even start the car to get her to a mechanic. The problem hasn't gone on for this long before so maybe it is getting worse. I thought there maybe a clutch depression sensor as the clutch has to be in before she will start, perhaps someone can confirm or deny this for me. Failing this I am thinking along the lines of a defective immobilized. Jim.

[Lamp Swinger]

Originally Posted by fatneck

Hi Folks.
My car is half full of fuel so it may be the sensor problem, although I would have expected some sort of warning on the dash but there are none. Tried the gearshift wiggle David but no joy. Problem is I can't even start the car to get her to a mechanic. The problem hasn't gone on for this long before so maybe it is getting worse. I thought there maybe a clutch depression sensor as the clutch has to be in before she will start, perhaps someone can confirm or deny this for me. Failing this I am thinking along the lines of a defective immobilized. Jim.

Just a thought fatneck!!

When you press the start button, do you hear the steering lock disengage? That may well point to a immobiliser issue. Although I'm surprised the engine spins over.

David