Cold start problems...

[benmillerturner]

Hi All,

New to this site, Delicas and my first post here. I have recently been in the Baja all winter and had no problems starting. Now I'm back on the West Coast and the van is struggling hard/not starting at all. Lots of black smoke and firing up. The glow plugs looked super old and I did not know when they were changed last so I swapped them out (they were pretty seized in there- 2 hours later) for a nice new pair and thought that would for sure be the ticket... to no avail. One of the old plugs had a chip out of the tip and looked to have oil on the tip as well.... is that concerning? It looked like the one with oil on the tip had not been getting hot at all so maybe I was down one plug. In any case, 4 brand news ones and same problem. It will start plugged in with a block heater though. Lots of black smoke and soot on start up too. I had the injectors and turbo serviced down in the Baja hoping to deal with the black smoke and make it run a little smoother... haven't noticed much change. I do hear the two 'clicks' when turning the key... How else do I know these glow plugs are doing their job? Could it be a battery issue?

Any help would be much appreciated.