Seat Leon FR (SC) - Issue starting from cold

[Edward Gibson]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone might have any insight into an issue I'm having with a recently purchased 2014 Seat Leon FR (SC).

When I leave the car overnight and come to start it the following morning, I usually find that it will crank over multiple times before the engine strikes up (sometimes for 4-5 seconds) - and then when it does start I get some noticeable smoke out of the back. The car will then strike up absolutely fine on all other occasions throughout the day, until I leave it overnight again. I don't notice anything untoward either when driving the car and there are no warning lights.

I let all the lights go out on the dash before starting and have tried double heating the glowplugs, but it makes no difference. I've also had the battery checked as well as the glowplugs and both are fine.

The garage I had look at it could not find the specific issue, but indicated that it looked to be down to an issue with the fuel pressure when starting up. They suggested taking it to VW to plug it into their computers, as they couldn't do anything more with it...

Has anyone had anything similar / come across this and could offer any insight? I've only had the car a month and am now concerned this might be something expensive to diagnose / resolve and that I might have been sold a lemon by the dealer...

Thanks,
Ed

 

[BoomerBoom]

There are several threads on slow starting, with some suggestions to try.

Basically the ECU will only inject when every parameter is correct: crank speed, fuel pressure etc. If one is low and it takes a few seconds for the minimum be reached then there might be a fault logged, might not.

 

[xyz]

Is it a diesel and do you park on a slope? My wife’s last Ibiza had starting problems whilst parked on our driveway. I changed the fuel filter (five minute job) and after that, no probs. Diesels are heavy engines to crank anyway and the poor fuel filter was compounding the issue - you’ll hear a buzz as the fuel system pressurises to give enough to crank the engine. A combination of a heavy engine and poor fuel supply could be the issue here. Fuel filter should be dirt cheap to buy from euro car parts etc.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Edward Gibson]

Thanks a lot for the responses.

It is a diesel 2.0, but it's not parked on a slope. The issue occurred when left overnight at the garage I got to look at it too, so I don't think it's related to how the car is sat. I'll investigate getting another fuel filter in there if it's fairly cheap and an easy job for a mechanical novice...

BoomerBoom - if the issue is just a delay on the ECU injecting, do you think it would be likely to cause me knock on issues in the long term, or would it just be a 'cosmetic' issue that it'd be possible to live with? The garage I took it too were indicating that no fault was logged, but that the fuel pressure was low on startup.

Cheers,
Ed

 

[BoomerBoom]

It's impossible to say for sure. It could just be a minor problem or one that will get worse until a breakdown, but it's not likely to be catastrophic.

For example I've had slow starting on diesels when it was just a dying battery, another when the tandem pump was leaking oil back into the fuel filter - which was much more expensive to fix. I didn't action either until it got much worse than just a slight delay.

 

[npn]

Hi,

I have the same issue. (Leon MK3 1.6TDI, 2014)
The first engine start on day is with problems (3-5 seconds rotating to start). The other ones in the same day are very OK. The problem appears every time after car is stopped more than 8-9 hours. Scanned it with VCSD and no faults are shown.

I tried the following with no result:
- Replace the fuel filter with a new one
- Replace the camshaft sensor
- Removed and clean the diesel fuel delivery unit - pump from fuel tank. Check for possible leaks on pump connectors -> no problems found
- Tried different brand of diesel.
- Battery measured with a dedicated tool (the startup amperage and other parameters) => 48% remaining life

What works (as workaround – not a final solution):
- Activate contact (not start)
- Keep the contact set ON (without start) for >5-6 seconds
- Turn the key in off position
- Activate contact (not start) – for a second time
- Keep the contact set ON (without start) for 5-6 seconds
- Start the engine
- The engine starts without any problem

I intent to build a custom fuel pressure checking tool to verify the pressure between:
- High pressure pump and diesel filter unit on both fuel line and fuel return line
- Diesel filter unit and tank fuel lines
- Fuel lines and diesel fuel delivery unit

If you have (any) more ideas, please advise.

Regards,
Petre

 

[Edward Gibson]

Hi,

I've had my car diagnosed at Seat, with no joy. They tried fully charging the battery which hasn't helped and no errors came up during the diagnostic.

I have noticed that 95% of the time the car will start ok if I wait 1-2 seconds after the glow plug light goes out before turning the ignition.

Im going to live with it for now and see how it starts when the weather gets colder.

It's frustrating as the car us great otherwise!

 

[Big Col]

It seems to be a 'feature' of the 184 engine

If you search I've got a thread about this and few fixes to try and get to the bottom of it. I never solved it.

Theres a vid on youtube where the poster claims its due to the variable cam timing system.

I changed from a 2014 184FR to a 2016 Golf GTD, the Golf does it as well.
I've stopped searching for a cure.

 

[Hawkers]

Sometimes my 184 starts straight away. Sometimes it fires for a couple seconds and then starts, never not started though.

 

[Edward Gibson]

Cheers guys,

Mine has never actually failed to start either - it was more that it was a new car to me and it worried me that there was some kind of issue that was going to bite me later down the line....

If it's effectively just a cosmetic problem then I can live with it (provided it doesn't get worse in the winter!)

Thanks all for your input, much appreciated.

 

[npn]

Problem solved!
New battery (Varta AGM as the original one).

 

[161leon]

Hi, I’m new to this forum.
Ive noticed for a while that my car would chuckle when first started in the day, weather it’s a warm or cold morning. Wondering if anyone has ever seen this. Video below you should be able to hear it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ajyzz-jW9Ak?feature=share