What happened to me? I decided to leave the car alone and drown my sorrows in my local pub on a daily basis, whilst accepting the fact that I was destined to spend my days driving the Peugeot 206 as my Mrs has very kindly relieved me of my Boxster for the summer...
What actually happened is not far off the above - I've just been very busy with the business and having got another couple of cars to use it has been sat in the car park at home irritating my neighbours. However...
Yesterday, the legend that is brianp38dse popped over again with his box of tricks and general P38 Diesel knowledge, and we went through a few more tests. We tried spraying it with devils juice (easy start) which didn't really help. Didn't want to try too much in case it got addicted. We pulled the glows and bench tested them, all fine. Plugged in Rovacom and found a Water temp sensor was giving insufficient readings so replaced that and still wouldn't start. In the end by process of elimination we pulled out the replacement fuel stop solenoid and replaced it with a known good one and with half a turn of the key she roared into life, sounding just as agricultural as she always has!
So there we go, it was a failed fuel stop solenoid all along, the new part I got was either a duff part or perhaps was just not at it's best. Point being, we're back on the road! Took it out for about 60 miles on varying roads last night and have noticed a few issues but nothing too bad...
It doesn't like to start when it's cold but a few lights on the glows and it fires into life. When warm it starts completely fine - i assume this is something to do with the hot fix mod which I removed and probably re-installed badly... Also D doesn't seem to be any different from 3rd on the gearbox but I think it was doing this before... not driven it in a month so could be anything! I'll investigate that separately. The point being is that I drove to work this morning high above the traffic in comfort and with a decent stereo... something I've been missing a lot over the last month!
Have to say a massive, massive thank you to all of you on here and especially Brian and to Wammers who is clearly the fountain of all knowledge when it comes to these. Next time I'm up your way Wammers I would very much like to take you for a pint.
I would say after 12 pages this thread is now closed! Thanks again - and I'll be glad to help others out where I can.