Hi all,

Just did a really stupid thing and bought a non-runner ST TDCI on eBay. It was listed with injector issues, but I'm not 100% convinced yet.
According to the seller, it had a new injector on no.2 just before Christmas at a Ford dealer. They then found that number 4 was no good (seems odd they didn't notice earlier) but the previous owner didn't have the funds to get them to change that one too (they were charging him £500 a go!) He then took it to a diesel specialist local to him, who he says told him the same thing (though their receipt is pretty vague and doesn't mention what they actually found). I work in a garage (of sorts) and have since recovered the car and had a good look over it. I've been spending the last couple of nights searching these and other forums for people having similar issues, but have found nothing exactly the same as mine yet.

Where I'm at:

* It cranks, but it won't start. Doesn't really seem to get close either. The glow plug light is flashing during cranking.

* I've bled the fuel filter in and I have diesel at the injectors while cranking (seems to be high pressure too, though I've only cracked the pipes off...nothing scientific!)

* I've hooked the car up to a Solus which first gave me the following codes:
P1000 - sensors ok?
P1608 - pump fault?
P0201 - injector malfunction (guessing this was previous garages disconnecting and fiddling with injectors?)
P0202 "
P0203 "
P0204 "
P2291 low fuel pressure on cranking?

* I made a note of all these, reset the codes and tried cranking again. I then re-scanned it and the only codes left were P1000 and P2291, which apparently means low fuel pressure when cranking.

* I then misted a small dose of brake cleaner up the intake and managed to get the car to start on this, to check whether the engine had no major faults. I couldn't get the car to continue running on diesel once it was going....it would literally run as long as you squirted brake cleaner in it. Applying any throttle had no effect.

My next plan was to try a leak-off test, but (among other things) I'm wondering if this will work accurately if the engine isn't running? I was also planning to drain the fuel filter into a clear cup and let it settle to check for swarf from the pump (I'm already fearing the worst with the P1608!)

I've haven't tried recoding, though the Solus unit can do this. I've also ordered a copy of F-Super in case this helps over the next few days.

Any advice would be fully appreciated. I work with cars on a daily basis, but the world of common rail diesels is pretty foreign to me!

Cheers