rough idle

[acidwarp]

hi there

golf 1.9td, 93, 240 000km,

Its almost 2 weeks now that when I start my car, i pull the cold weather lever, the idle is really rough, unregular, as if it burps every second or two.  Then i press the lever back, at the lower rpm it burps even more..

But if I use the car again later in the day, it doesnt burp that much, only a bit, then its smooth..

I made 275 km of city for 22 liters, which is not really great...

The smoke at idle is white with a tint of blue.

And, the engine makes this noise like "pffffrrrrfffrrrrfffffffrrrrffffrrffffff"

Bad injection? Or glowplug? I dont have the tools to check...

[toomanycars]

I't's hard for we in Australia (even here in Tasmania which is as close to Antarctica as we get!) to imagine the cold of Montreal in winter....But...diesels will do this when starting from cold if a) they are worn and down on compression; or b) badly timed either at the injection pump or camshaft; or c) need new injection nozzles. The fact that it starts at all suggests that the glow plugs are OK. Best strategy is to get the compressions checked first. If they are OK then when it's idling crack each injection line at the injector union and note any change in engine speed. If no change, suspect the injector. If neither of these tests give the cause, you'll have to get the pump timing checked at a workshop. At any juncture, you can set the flywheel at TDC and check that the camshaft is lined up at the rear. (You'll have to remove the camshaft cover.)
Good luck! Peter.

[acidwarp]

oh ok,

but curiously i dont think the weather has something to do with it because this week we had a couple of days around 0 degree celsius, yesterday was 2 or 3, well over the average temperature for this time of the year...

[Patrick]

Is it sucking air because it needs a fuel filter? Look for bubbles in the fuel lines. Possibility..........

[acidwarp]

hmm

I must ad this :

since I've noticed the problem, one week ago, it takes 2 tries to make the glow plug light turn on, if I insert the key once, all lights turn on except glow plug, I then retry again and the glow plug works...

but maybe its just a short somewhere..