she wont start,help please????

hi there,
im in **** my wifes p38 2001 wont start,she is the 2,5tdhse,
the symptoms are yesterday i drove it for a short run parked it up the about an hour later i turned the key,the motor kept turning over for about 20-30 seconds then after about the 4 time she fired up and left a nice cloud of smoke behind but as soon as i pulled off then no smoke.

thien this morning as luck would have it i was the other side of the city and wife went to start her and the motor just kept turning and no go an error of traction failure was showing.
she cought the bus to remind her of how thing once were.

when i got back i checked the oil level and she is on the mark,the battery has 3/4 water,the coolant is well topped up. i tried to even jump start her and no luck,the way she is churning sounds like she is not getting fuel into the injectors,(new injectors less than 8000miles old).

as usual this always happens when im broke,,,, so is there any way i can try get her to start again? please help

thanks john

check fuel pipes, there are posts on here where the pipes allow air in and it effects starting and running, even if they look good they can be knackered!

just crack off injectors get some one to turn her over KEEP HANDS OUT THE WAY of course turn her over see if shes pumping diesel out of injectors if she is the problem must be somewhere else maybe somthing silly like an imobiliser fault or bad earth hope this helps

Could be fuel shut off solenoid gone tits up .

Clouds of smoke when she started sounds like it could be glow plugs, and as Gravbriggs says it could be the leak off pipes on the top of the injectors, can you see air bubbles in the pipe between the diesel filter and injector pump , and again as Gavbriggs said those leak of pipes can look ok and not leak diesel bud allow diesel to run back to the tank causing the engine to be turned many time to get fuel to the injectors again

thanks lads ill give it a try when i get home later...
hold thumbs.

Check glow plugs.

Could also be Glow Plug relay and/or relay connections or fuse. Test the Glow Plugs with a DVM from any plug to chassis earth and see that you get around 12 volts when the key is turned and the glow plug light is on. If it is much less then you probably have a bad connection or faulty relay, if no volts, it's either of those plus it could also be the fuse.

hi just a follow up on why the p38 would not start.
the glow plug relay was melted....had a new one put in and shes as good as new....

Just make sure the battery is FULLY charged (charge it, then you know 100%) it will cost you nothing to do this, a low battery will give you error messages on the dash, just try that first, but the other advise you got ^^^ is sound, do them too