S3 Starting Help please.

Hi all
I have recently bought an 1983 Series 3 with 2.25 diesel engine to
tow/launch a boat with.

Bit of a stupid question but I have never had a diesel vehicle of this age
before....

What is the correct procedure for starting her up.
At what point/key position do I know the glow plugs are getting hot?
Does the cold start orange light on the dash do anything as I haven't seen
it come on yet.

Sometimes she seems to fire up first time, other times it can take upto a
minute of turning over.

Many thanks in advance.

Luis

Luis Troyano wrote:

> Hi all
> I have recently bought an 1983 Series 3 with 2.25 diesel engine to
> tow/launch a boat with.
>
> Bit of a stupid question but I have never had a diesel vehicle of
> this age before....
>
> What is the correct procedure for starting her up.
> At what point/key position do I know the glow plugs are getting hot?
> Does the cold start orange light on the dash do anything as I haven't
> seen it come on yet.
>
> Sometimes she seems to fire up first time, other times it can take
> upto a minute of turning over.

Turn on the ignition, then turn the key against the spring pressure (as
if you were about to use the starter motor, but not quite far enough to
trigger the starter) and after 5 or 10 seconds the orange light will
start to glow dimly, then slowly get brighter.

This is the heater plugs warming up. When cold 15 to 30 seconds is
needed - when hot maybe only 5 seconds. You'll get a feel for it in
time!

Good luck.

--
Simes

On 21 Aug, in article <[email protected]>
[email protected] "Simon Atkinson" wrote:

> Luis Troyano wrote:
>
> > Hi all
> > I have recently bought an 1983 Series 3 with 2.25 diesel engine to
> > tow/launch a boat with.
> >
> > Bit of a stupid question but I have never had a diesel vehicle of
> > this age before....
> >
> > What is the correct procedure for starting her up.
> > At what point/key position do I know the glow plugs are getting hot?
> > Does the cold start orange light on the dash do anything as I haven't
> > seen it come on yet.
> >
> > Sometimes she seems to fire up first time, other times it can take
> > upto a minute of turning over.
>
> Turn on the ignition, then turn the key against the spring pressure (as
> if you were about to use the starter motor, but not quite far enough to
> trigger the starter) and after 5 or 10 seconds the orange light will
> start to glow dimly, then slowly get brighter.
>
> This is the heater plugs warming up. When cold 15 to 30 seconds is
> needed - when hot maybe only 5 seconds. You'll get a feel for it in
> time!

Also note that the heater plugs are in series, which means a fault on
one takes out the whole lot. You can get a replacement kit which puts
them in parallel.

--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

"History shows that the Singularity started when Sir Tim Berners-Lee
was bitten by a radioactive spider."