Pumped out old Diesel added New to a 10 year garaged 75 cdti, now engine won't start
 

Hello.:duh:


Can anyone help me please. I have a garaged Rover 75 CDTI, year 2002 on a SORN with just 23,000 on the clock. I decided to put it back on the road again after 10 years of storage. I want to give it a complete service and clean up before it's new MOT.


I wanted to ged rid of the 10 year old stood diesel in the tank. I've pumped out as much of the old diesel as I could from the fuel tank to virtually emptying it using the under bonnet fuel pump with clear tubing into a jerry can. I then refilled the tank to just under half full with some new diesel. I used to turn the engine over regulary before and it would always start first time with no problems, but after the new fuel refill the engine just turns over but it absolutely refuses to start.


I've checked both the back seat and under bonnet pumps and they can be heard to be working fine. I have unclipped the outlet flow pipe from the fuel filter and inserted some clear tubing to see if fuel is flowing through the fuel filter to the outlet point on the other side of the filter, which it is when the ignition is turned fully on. So fuel is getting through to this point.


Any ideas on what may be causing the engine now not to start. The engine did start first time before I started to empty the old fuel out. It did take me an hour and a half to empty the fuel using the UBP by turning the ignition on and off for a minute evertime. Have I caused any damage to the Fuel Injectors or the Glow Plugs by having the ignition fully turned on whist emtying, or have I burnt out something that I am not aware of.



Any advice would be much appreciated. It's a lovely car with no body rust or major bodywork scars, it's like new inside and out and I'm scratching my head for away to get it restarted and on the road again.


Thanks for any replies.

Try unplugging the sensor on the fuel filter and see if that works

Thanks, I will try this out and report back later.


Update: I removed fuel filter sensor, first key turn and it nearly offered to strike up, so tried several times again afterwards, I just got the cranking but no offer of the engine starting. I left it for 30 minutes and tried again and still just the cranking and no offer to start.


Ha well, back to the drawing boards I'm afraid.

How much fuel have you put in?

Hi Andy, he said just under half full in the first post.

Serve me right for not reading lol :duh:

I would jack the drivers side of the car up to ensure the fuel is on the opposite side of the tank and see if that works.

Thanks Trikey for your help. I will try your new suggestion first thing in the morning and see if that is the answer. I actually did bounce the rear of the car up and down by jumping up and down on the towbar to agitate the fuel tank contents, (You will try anything when your desperate!)



I do have access to a working Rover 75 Tourer cdti year 2001 that I can use for testing by swapping parts over from one car to the other to try and see if they can solve the starting issue. Whilst under the bonnet I've also cleaned the camshaft sensor and refitted it back, no difference though, although reading threads thats usually associated with warm start problems.


If your latest suggestion doesn't work I might try a crankshaft sensor swap and rule that out if that doesn't solve the starting issue. I'm reading as many threads on here about starting issues to see what else can be done and try fix the problem.

If your not in a hurry, we get to Lincolnshire every couple of Months, id be happy to pop in with T4 and try and pinpoint the issue.

Thanks for the offer Trikey. I wanted to get the saloon on the road quickly because the tourer (120,000 miles) which I use everyday has very bad worn engine mounts/degredation wear (really squeaky and bad engine movement when gearing up/down with also the driveshaft cv joint grinding as well (the cars feeling it's age just like me!) and the MOT date is approaching soon and I haven't got the time at the moment to fix all these issues.


I regret now pumping out the old diesel fuel from the garaged saloon when it did start before with no issues, I thought I might help it with a fresh tank of fuel but it wasn't to be, it's just half a tank full at the moment, I will add another 5 litres tomorrow as well to make sure it has more than enough fuel in the tank. But tomorrow is another day and I would love to fix it and get it back on the road. I still think the issue is related to the length of time with turning the ignition on and off every other minute to draw out the fuel though the UBP, I think it's harmed another part which affects the starting problem. The battery is fully charged as well so full cranking power is present.

Its all fixable, and I also know about the old age thing lol