astroboy
Guest
Hi all,
I’m a total newbie to this forum but I’ve been using as a form of research and answers for a long time now.
I admittedly put my hand up and say that I have no experience working on diesels (although I’ve been driving one for the last 5 years) but I’ve come to a point where I do need help from the experienced Seat boys! So any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.
My daily drive is the Seat Altea, it’s a 54 Reg, 1.9tdi PD105. I bought it in 2009 (55k) and it’s been legendary. Frequent drives to Scotland and the odd trip across to the continent and a drive every weekend that covered 300 odd miles. It has never skipped a beat until September last year where the water pumped seized 120k. It’s currently sitting on 130k. I had the cambelt and waterpump changed bang on at 70k. It’s had regular services and I make sure it get decent oil.
Anyhow, I was driving towards the east coast (norfolk) where I had to overtake a slow moving but long lorry that was going 40mph in a 50. As I over took, I changed down from 5th to 4th to make use of the turbo’s boost. Suddenly the power cut out on everything but I just managed to overtake and roll the car to a petrol 150 meters away.
I lifted up the bonnet and checked underneath and it smelt like bad burning rubber. I lifted the plastic cover and smell was coming from the left hand side. I lifted the cambelt cover and it stank but I couldn’t see what was wrong. I called the AA and they confirmed with those dreaded words, ‘the cambelt has snapped’. I was gutted, not only because I knew that it was bad news but because I didn’t want this to be the end of my long distance car.
Cut a long story short, because I pulled over quickly and didn’t try to start it again. I got an inspection done and luckily I didn’t do any damage to the internals. So I got the car serviced, cambelt, waterpump etc and some glow plugs changed and it was good, slightly down on power for some reason but only slightly.
Around the time it started to get really cold this year we’ve had problems with the car starting; when the engine is cold. Once it starts, it works fine and goes on and on. It’s just starting the car in the cold weather is a bastad to do. This morning it took 10 minutes which is typical when it doesn’t want to start. On the odd day it starts fine after when I leave the key in the ignition for a minute or two. On a day I’m finding it difficult to start I would have to leave the key in the ignition for a little longer to try and start it. It could take a good number or tries to get it going.
The thing is, it’s not the battery. I’ve checked it’s charge (Battery sits at 13/14V when engine is off) and I’ve checked that the alternator is charging the battery too.
On another note which seems unrelated but maybe? I have noticed that amount of rear light bulbs that it goes through it pretty high. I’ve had to buy a few and keep them in the car ready to replace when needed. What happens is the connection point at the rear of the bulb for some reason melts away. As it melts, it starts to loose contact to the point that they aren’t touching.
It’d be great to hear your thoughts. BTW I’m based in East Midlands – Corby. No comments on Corby though lol, just the car please.
Sorry to put up an annoying first post though but thanks all in advance.
I’m a total newbie to this forum but I’ve been using as a form of research and answers for a long time now.
I admittedly put my hand up and say that I have no experience working on diesels (although I’ve been driving one for the last 5 years) but I’ve come to a point where I do need help from the experienced Seat boys! So any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.
My daily drive is the Seat Altea, it’s a 54 Reg, 1.9tdi PD105. I bought it in 2009 (55k) and it’s been legendary. Frequent drives to Scotland and the odd trip across to the continent and a drive every weekend that covered 300 odd miles. It has never skipped a beat until September last year where the water pumped seized 120k. It’s currently sitting on 130k. I had the cambelt and waterpump changed bang on at 70k. It’s had regular services and I make sure it get decent oil.
Anyhow, I was driving towards the east coast (norfolk) where I had to overtake a slow moving but long lorry that was going 40mph in a 50. As I over took, I changed down from 5th to 4th to make use of the turbo’s boost. Suddenly the power cut out on everything but I just managed to overtake and roll the car to a petrol 150 meters away.
I lifted up the bonnet and checked underneath and it smelt like bad burning rubber. I lifted the plastic cover and smell was coming from the left hand side. I lifted the cambelt cover and it stank but I couldn’t see what was wrong. I called the AA and they confirmed with those dreaded words, ‘the cambelt has snapped’. I was gutted, not only because I knew that it was bad news but because I didn’t want this to be the end of my long distance car.
Cut a long story short, because I pulled over quickly and didn’t try to start it again. I got an inspection done and luckily I didn’t do any damage to the internals. So I got the car serviced, cambelt, waterpump etc and some glow plugs changed and it was good, slightly down on power for some reason but only slightly.
Around the time it started to get really cold this year we’ve had problems with the car starting; when the engine is cold. Once it starts, it works fine and goes on and on. It’s just starting the car in the cold weather is a bastad to do. This morning it took 10 minutes which is typical when it doesn’t want to start. On the odd day it starts fine after when I leave the key in the ignition for a minute or two. On a day I’m finding it difficult to start I would have to leave the key in the ignition for a little longer to try and start it. It could take a good number or tries to get it going.
The thing is, it’s not the battery. I’ve checked it’s charge (Battery sits at 13/14V when engine is off) and I’ve checked that the alternator is charging the battery too.
On another note which seems unrelated but maybe? I have noticed that amount of rear light bulbs that it goes through it pretty high. I’ve had to buy a few and keep them in the car ready to replace when needed. What happens is the connection point at the rear of the bulb for some reason melts away. As it melts, it starts to loose contact to the point that they aren’t touching.
It’d be great to hear your thoughts. BTW I’m based in East Midlands – Corby. No comments on Corby though lol, just the car please.
Sorry to put up an annoying first post though but thanks all in advance.
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