Hallo all,
I would appreciate a piece of advice regarding the starting problems of my 240D. Recently I noticed that glow plug light in the cluster is not comming on all the time. If I turn the key of and then on again it usualy comes on. Also the car has problems with cold starts. I have to crank for 5-10 seconds few times before it starts. I've checked if there is juice on glow plugs and when the cluster light is on there's juce if it's off there isn't. I traced this to a electric part of the lock. There was lot of oil on the lock assembly, presumably from the vacum pump so that might be the issue. I also checked the resistance of the glow plugs and got between 2-3 ohms for all four. One of the earlier posts indicates 0.3-0.9ohms as normal. Should I suspect the glow plugs, electrical part of the lock or something else. Also the vacuum system seems to hold prety good, but the oil in it was suspiceous. Should I rebuilt the vaccum pump or some leakage is OK.
Would appreciate all suggestions
Thanks

 

If the car shuts off without a problem, than vacuum pump is likely OK.
How did you get oil on the vacuum system? It could come only from outside.
Since you've tested all glow plugs separately (?), the problem seems to be in electrical system. Check if the fuses have good connections.
If you have aluminum fuses, throw them away and put copper in. Glow plugs relay is my suspicion, but good luck on tracing the problem.