Diesel starting.

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

Whilst I realise that you colonials cannot get the best car in the BMW world, I wonder if any of you have experience of my problem.
If I screw/gorilla the fuel filter on then it`s a bitch to start cold but runs 721 miles to the last drop. If I put it on normally then car starts cold fine but stutters below 1/4 tank. Filter head replaced last year and made no difference, car has done 270,000 but engine new 3 litre twin turbo with old style pump,,problem same with both engines. Car is in container on way to Canada with full tank and filter bypassed in case nugget drives it out.

[Ross]

Sounds like the pick-up in the tank but I can't think of a correlation to how the filter is tightened. It's an in line filter , right?
Is there a "sock" on the fuel pick-up? Perhaps it gets clogged and opening the fuel line to change a filter allows the fuel to run back washing the crud out?? Just a thought. Not too familiar with those oil burners you know.
Tally ho

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

Whilst I realise that you colonials cannot get the best car in the BMW world, I wonder if any of you have experience of my problem.
If I screw/gorilla the fuel filter on then it`s a bitch to start cold but runs 721 miles to the last drop. If I put it on normally then car starts cold fine but stutters below 1/4 tank. Filter head replaced last year and made no difference, car has done 270,000 but engine new 3 litre twin turbo with old style pump,,problem same with both engines. Car is in container on way to Canada with full tank and filter bypassed in case nugget drives it out.


never bother with running below a 1/4 tank, we keep em full.

Go Dick Cheney!

[Ferret]

Crappy diesel starting is almost always down to a fuel hose leak... but before the pump, so it's not leaking fuel out, but air in.

The air accumulates in the filter and you then end up having to reprime.

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

Replaced the plastic pipe from bulkhead to filter head,no difference.Gonna start at the back now, thanks.

[Ferret]

Check your filter seals themselves, sometimes the seals or one-way valves fail in the diesel filters, and the natural vaccuum in the tank after a run draws the fuel back down the lines and air into the filter. (Which might explain the problem if your fuel cap is on.)

I need to change my entire filter header over too as if you park mine on a latteral incline it sometimes stutters on startup horrifically.

Peugeots were particularly bad at this for some reason - I used to have a 205 TD that I ended up putting a landrover diesel filter on, just to get it to start properly.