I picked up a Saab 9-5 3.0V6TiD last week (my first diesel car), car was very low on fuel so as I'm about to turn onto the road where the gas station is, it runs out. Walked to the station and got 3'ish liters of diesel, but prior kept trying to turn it over. Didn't know about priming/air in the fuel lines until today. It's been sitting at the side of the road for 2 days now, and I'm about to go back to start it. Does anybody know how I should go about trying to start it or where the primer would be? I know not many people have experience with diesel here, but any help at all would be useful.

Thanks in advance

 

I use to deal with an old diesel Daihatsu back in the day, older diesels use to air lock if you ever run out of gas. As far as I know, its something that you should try to avoid at all cost as recovering from it is a pain in the ass

Read this and see if helps

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publi...heet/fm-01.pdf


Problem with small diesel motors is that they dont come fitted with primer bulb hence priming the pump is impossible unless you install one yourself.

Check this answer

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question...5102529AAmyNJp


One of my acquaintance is a diesel tech at a local HD truck dealer, I run into him once a day, let me ask him if he can chime in on this situation.

 

That would be great. I'm heading over to the car shortly, assuming theres no primer under the hood, i'll probably end up having to get it towed regardless because theres literally no sorts of auto stores here in Europe that I have seen. I'm going to try some starter fluid and get a few more liters in the tank and see if I have any luck. It's probably already air locked. Expecting the worst here.

 

If it is not starting then yes it is airlocked

Starting fluid isnt going to help as the system is not getting any fuel, an initial start would only yield the car dieing on you soon after.

Locate the primer if you can. I'll state your situation to the diesel tech I know and see if he can suggest something.

 

A Saab 9-5 should have an electronic valve in the tank to purge the air out. I've read on a Saab forum to hit the gas tank (hard) with something as the valve gets stuck. Good luck!

 

Thanks! Do you mean just get under it and punch the tank? lol

 

So I just spoke to the diesel tech and here is what he had to suggest, not knowing how the fuel system is set up.

1) Locate the fuel filter, take it off, fill it up all the way i.e to the max level that you can before it starts spilling. Screw it back on. If the fuel pump has a primer then prime the system as much as possible to a point where it gets real hard to prime. At this point try to start the engine, you may have to try plenty of times till it turns over.


2) If the above doesnt work, then fill the fuel filter, crank the primer if there is one, undo the fuel injectors and crank the engine till u start seeing fuel, bolt them back on one at a time and keeping cranking till it ignites.

Hopefully i got it right, and hopefully it helps, good luck.

 

By the time I got to the car today the battery had pretty much died too so I was SOL. A few of my buddies pushed it to a mechanic, luckily only about 500-600m from where I was stuck (not as much downhill as I was hoping for ) Should get an update in the afternoon tomorrow. Thanks for your help guys. Def been a learning experience so far haha

 

Was indeed air locked. Paid ~40USD and i'm back and running. Thanks for the help guys. Definately a lesson learned to fuel up lol

 

Beside the aggravation thats not bad .

BTW almost all the new diesels do not air lock.