Hello,
I have a 98 DSE, and it developed an intermittent tick over problem several months ago that came and went. (sounds like it is starving of fuel, bag of nails) It recently started to not start properly. It would briefly fire and then take ages of turning the engine over and pumping of the pedal to get it to fire properly. I have had the glow plugs checked and they are fine, I have swapped the fuel filter, and recently had the crankshaft position sensor changed, but no change. I am now looking at getting the injector pump changed, but I am not convinced that is the problem. So before I hand over a wad of cash to my mechaninc I would like to know from you wise people out there whether I should go ahead or investigate another source of the fault.

Cheers

Bob

Check the lift pump, search this site re. testing a lift pump if your not sure.

There are a lot of symptoms of lift pump failure depending on the state of fuel system around it the IP pump etc...

For example, a fuel system that is not completly air tight, and leaks a little when the engine is off, and thus emptying the fuel lines may have difficultys in starting because the lift pump is not there to blast a heap of diesel in quickly.

Our 300tdi had a lift pump failure, and it ran fine, just had no oomph after a certain engine speed.

There is an in tank electric pump on your DSE,not a mechanical ,engine driven one as on Tdi's etc.Sounds like its pulling in air - the fuel pipe between the fuel filter head and the the injector pump is see through.If you can see bubbles in the fuel whilst its running then this is your problem.Perished leak off pipes across the top of the injectors will allow air to pull in overnight and cause poor starting.But in your case if the bubbles are present while its running then I'd suspect a split in the convoluted pipe in the pickup unit in the tank.Looking at that clear pipe should give you a clue.

Electric, Oh, well does that work then...