Car Struggles To Start

[vmail]

The car struggles to start in the morning, I dont think its the glow plugs

just got a Battery charger since I only do 2x 2 miles trips a day and I dont think thats long enough to charge the Battery

I've been told that I should disconnect the Battery from the car and that I should use the slow charge option, is that correct?

the manual does not say anything about disconnecting the battery

slow charge is 3.7A and the fast charge is 8A, does it really matter which one i use?

[GIDDLEPIN]

Are the glow plugs in series or parallel?

[vmail]

I dont know, not looked yet, dont know where they are located, will look at the manual in the morning

[T V O R]

just got a battery charger since I only do 2x 2 miles trips a day

That will be your answer then.

You will need to do at least 7 to 9 miles to put the charge back in the Battery you used to start the thing.

I had a diesel once and had the same problem. I don’t do enough miles to justify a diesel powered car. It was always going flat and in the winter months I knew if it didn’t start first time then I was stuffed.

If its only 2 miles why use a car?

The only alternative would be to go the (very) long way round to keep the Battery charged up and have sufficient juice to start it the next day.

[vmail]

the other option is a 45 minute walk

I did take the car to manchester and back a couple of days ago

[Boro Sera]

it shouldn't take you 45 mins to walk 2 miles - unless you're carrying some heavy shopping or something .

Winter is a terrible time for car batteries - especially if you're only getting 10 minutes or so of driving time out of them. You've got your lights on usually, heater, wipers etc all draining the Battery faster than the alternator can recharge it.

Give the car a good blat out once a week to put more charge back in the Battery.

If you only travel 2 miles and you don't want to walk, have you considered cycling? It's cheap and good for you.

[Jessicaa]

well you should have gone Toyota :P

[vmail]

The toyota is in car heaven, Battery is fully charged, will have a look at the glow plugs later

[Karma Supra]

We have the same issue at work, the pool car is an Accord estate, and for insurance reasons it neads to sit in the workshop at night... so every morning it gets parked outside, every evening it gets put back in... The Battery didn't like this so the solution was a solar powered car charger, so when it sits outside in the day it gets very gently trickle charged.....

Just remember the ones that plug into the cigar lighter are no use as most modern cars kill the power to that once the acc is off ;)