I have an Astra diesel estate with an Isuzu 1.7td engine.When it is running the engine is fine.The alternator and battery are new but I still have a slow cranking problem. Yesterday morning I ran it for approx 1 hour and left it for 2 hrs and it fired straight away. Yesterday afternoon I was moving some kitchen gear between houses and usually the period between stopping and restarting the engine was from 5 to 30 mins but each time it just cranked quite slowly before firing. Whilst I know diesel engines sometimes take time to fire I never had this problem until approx 6 weeks ago. Until then the starter had turned quickly.Even with jump leads the starter seems quite sluggish. All this leads me to believe that the problem is with the starter but I would be grateful for any advice from you guys. Could there be another reason? Is there a way of testing the starter?
Thanks
Allan
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I don't know your particular vehicle but I should think that the fault lies in the starter contacts or solenoid, or, the battery terminals. With a suitabe meter,you can test the resistance of the starter energising circuit but, it should be possible to easily remove the solenoid and contacts (disconnecting the battery first after retrieving any codes, settings etc). You may find that the starter switch contacts are pitted and not making good contact. This was the problem on my Toyota diesel and good clean battery connections, plus re-dressed starter switch contacts, completely solved the problem.
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I would hazzard a guess at you having some kind of poor connection somewhere. Make sure the earth is not only attached securely to the chassis, but also the engine as well. I remember an old Landrover I had access to had this problem. The engine earth had disconnected itself and was using the throttle and choke cable as the earth instead. Only discovered when I popped the bonnet to see smoke coming off the cables. To check if it is an earth problem, attach a jump lead between the -ve battery terminal and the engine to make a temp earth.
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Check all connections first. Disconnect, clean and reconnect. If this fails it is likely the starter. Find a local auto electrical place that does recon - they may be able to test the motor for you. Certainly a recon will be more cost effective than new.
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I used to have a Cortina that started reliably but cranked slowly;it turned out in the end to be a poor connection between the cable to the starter and the tag that bolted to the solenoid;you could check the terminals for ever-it showed a good circuit but broke down uhder high current.
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I had the same problem with my astra after replacing the battery ( it's the Isuzu engine too) check the new battery's cranking amp's with the old one's, they may have mixed the engines up.Mine turned over quickly when 'jumped' with a 650amp battery ( ohh er!!)
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