# im gelled up (hopefully)



## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

in dawson creek, bc for work

cold snap, -40 nights, -25 days

car didnt start when finished work, cabbed it to the crewhouse

cabs the next day, as i didnt feel like changing a battery outside in -25 after working 12hrs overnite -40

got a new battery yesterday, still no start

we made some room in the shop for it today to warm up, gonna cab it over there at 2am, and pull the fuel filter and pour some gooder stuff in there and the tank, got a filter from the dealer here (ouch) minus whale change it, its 23%

hopefully she fires up

if she does, im gonna make a point to drain the filter in october, and throw a couple bucks of antigel in the stupid cold weather

its started fine at -51 before, so never saw the need for additives, but guess i got unlucky....same fuel stops as always for the life of the car, fuel SHOULD have been good, but stuff happens right?


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

boraz said:


> in dawson creek, bc for work
> 
> cold snap, -40 nights, -25 days
> 
> ...


Polar vortex FTL. 

Looks like ya ran into the same bad luck I just did with mine a few days ago. 

Luckily after several attempts I got mine to start without needing a tow. 

Definitely think it will be worth using an extra antigel additive for -30 or colder weather. Just in case a bad tank of fuel comes along at the wrong time. 

I checked and changed my fuel filter after in a heated garage and whatever sludge there may have been had dissolved.


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

Water probably froze somewhere. Maybe cause the filter is full. Maybe not. Sometimes it just happens.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

Snipesy said:


> Water probably froze somewhere. Maybe cause the filter is full. Maybe not. Sometimes it just happens.


yeah, all the times i drained the filter, never got anything

so of course stopped doin it lol


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

TDCruze said:


> Polar vortex FTL.
> 
> Looks like ya ran into the same bad luck I just did with mine a few days ago.
> 
> ...


i work for a tanker company, so just waited til we had some open shop space, the cold was wreaking havoc on all the work trucks, so my car was low priority, spent $150 in taxis to and from work and getting parts, and been living on delivery pizza and chinese food, but could be worse

if the car starts in the am, lesson learned, if it doesnt, ill cry


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

boraz said:


> yeah, all the times i drained the filter, never got anything
> 
> so of course stopped doin it lol


Yeah that's what my first thought was too, water/ice in fuel system as I had high fuel pressure but no issue starting a couple days prior. Not a drop of water came out of the fuel filter housing either. 

Notice anything strange prior to the no start?


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

TDCruze said:


> Yeah that's what my first thought was too, water/ice in fuel system as I had high fuel pressure but no issue starting a couple days prior. Not a drop of water came out of the fuel filter housing either.
> 
> Notice anything strange prior to the no start?


nope, car has been tiptop

was a little hard start the last week, in the -20s, so was running it every 3 days, was thinking it was more a volts issue, not fuel, think i have a voltage leak, or it was just a bad battery to have died this soon (2yrs)


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

Odometer?


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

Tomko said:


> Odometer?


190,000


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

TDCruze said:


> Yeah that's what my first thought was too, water/ice in fuel system as I had high fuel pressure but no issue starting a couple days prior. Not a drop of water came out of the fuel filter housing either.
> 
> Notice anything strange prior to the no start?


The amount of water diesel can hold decreases when temp goes down. One of the factors of gelling.

What can sometimes happen is if you always keep the tank in the garage, is the temp never falls enough for water to actaully separate.

But then you sit somewhere. Water comes out. And causes problem.


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

boraz said:


> nope, car has been tiptop
> 
> was a little hard start the last week, in the -20s, so was running it every 3 days, was thinking it was more a volts issue, not fuel, think i have a voltage leak, or it was just a bad battery to have died this soon (2yrs)


Weak battery definitely won't help in this cold.

Get a look at the fuel filter?



Snipesy said:


> The amount of water diesel can hold decreases when temp goes down. One of the factors of gelling.
> 
> What can sometimes happen is if you always keep the tank in the garage, is the temp never falls enough for water to actaully separate.
> 
> But then you sit somewhere. Water comes out. And causes problem.


Mine is usually in the heated garage overnight and out in the cold all day. First time I had issues in years of doing this was this past week.

With the non sludgy looking filter, moisture in a bad tank of fuel more than gelling makes sense in my case.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

old filter in the pan, new filter in the bowl










shop didnt have proper socket for filter housing, nor couldnt find channel locks, but i think it was 1 7/16 wrench i used on the filter housing....before i found the wrench was gonna try the rubber tarp strap as a filter wrench 










reinstalled with a bunch gel melter in the bowl, and bunch more in the fuel tank










fired up like it was summer time, parked it outside, put conditioner in the tank, cleaned up the shop, drove back to my crewhouse

phew....im glad its all fixed now


seemed watery when i drained it, dunno

scariest part is undoing the filter housing, feels like youre gonna break it, kept taking a 5min break then trying again, lol

i gotta buy some new plastic nuts for the aeropanel, they get loose with every time you remove them


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

Glad to hear your back on the road!

Sounds like excessive moisture in the fuel same as mine.
I will now be using an anti gel additive in cold weather just in case and responding right away if the low side fuel pressure goes up above normal. 

Those filter housings should have been build more solid.
Hard to turn cap with enough torque to remove, without over stressing plastic mounts.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

TDCruze said:


> Glad to hear your back on the road!
> 
> Sounds like excessive moisture in the fuel same as mine.
> I will now be using an anti gel additive in cold weather just in case and responding right away if the low side fuel pressure goes up above normal.
> ...


its fear over anything, just seems like too much force to get it undone

but ill take the blame on this one, wasnt the cars fault


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

boraz said:


> in dawson creek, bc for work
> 
> cold snap, -40 nights, -25 days


Part of my brain wonders why you Canucks who live and work in such conditions don't just buy gasoline vehicles. I live where it's only one or two days a year that I question whether my diesel car will start, but if I lived in the frozen north and my work depended on reliable transportation, I'd own a gasoline-powered car.


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## kelaog (Aug 1, 2019)

Barry Allen said:


> Part of my brain wonders why you Canucks who live and work in such conditions don't just buy gasoline vehicles. I live where it's only one or two days a year that I question whether my diesel car will start, but if I lived in the frozen north and my work depended on reliable transportation, I'd own a gasoline-powered car.


Where I live in Canada (South East Alberta), we only really get two weeks of the really cold stuff and the rest of the time it hovers around freezing until spring. It's not so bad. I lived on the coast of BC and it never really dropped too far below freezing but it rained frigging most of the year except summer and just owing to the humidity felt way colder than it ever does here in Alberta. I'll take dry and sunny but cold over cloudy,damp, and mild any day of the week. 

I have lived in the really northern parts of BC like the op is describing and yeah it can get mighty cold but this polar vortex thing is just next level for a couple weeks until its over. Lots of gasoline cars that don't start when these cold snaps hit either but its usually just a bad battery or something like that. I think we might just need to come to terms with two things: a. ) fuel is a gamble, b.) glow plugs do wear out.


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

Barry Allen said:


> Part of my brain wonders why you Canucks who live and work in such conditions don't just buy gasoline vehicles. I live where it's only one or two days a year that I question whether my diesel car will start, but if I lived in the frozen north and my work depended on reliable transportation, I'd own a gasoline-powered car.


Canada is very rural and many drive long distances. I put on about 25k miles a year pre covid. Diesel is usually cheaper and more fun to drive. 

Usually it isn't this cold even here. Breaking nearly 30 year old cold records this week.

I have had about as many troubles with no starts in gas cars at these temperatures.

You are right though the diesel fuel adds an extra risk in extreme cold.


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

Barry Allen said:


> Part of my brain wonders why you Canucks who live and work in such conditions don't just buy gasoline vehicles. I live where it's only one or two days a year that I question whether my diesel car will start, but if I lived in the frozen north and my work depended on reliable transportation, I'd own a gasoline-powered car.


never happened before, its not even that cold...and its rectified pretty easy, just heat er up

i drive 900 km to work, from 10p to 6a gas stations along the way are closed except for a couple....they charge 50cents a gallon more

with the cruze, i can make it the whole way no fuel stops, and the car has saved 15,000 dollars in fuel costs so far


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

today is the sposed last day of cold, she hasnt liked starting erry day, but has started

dunno if glow plugs are doin what the should or???

will check later


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

boraz said:


> today is the sposed last day of cold, she hasnt liked starting erry day, but has started
> 
> dunno if glow plugs are doin what the should or???
> 
> will check later


Could be weakened glow plugs or possibly wearing injectors? 

I would guess there is a spec for the resistance of the glow plugs. Should be easy to test with a good multimeter.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

boraz said:


> dunno if glow plugs are doin what the should or???


They are worth testing and replacing. They get tired after a while:










And sometimes they test alright and still aren't quite working properly:


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## kelaog (Aug 1, 2019)

Just pulled mine at 200k. It was easy. Took like an hour taking my sweet time letting penetrating lube work its way into the threads while I had 3 rums and bullshitted with a friend. Make sure to work them out slowly. I started going clockwise, then counter clockwise, and worked back and fourth until they were loose enough to take out by hand. Only one really needed it but they all came out easy without damaging the threads. Go easy and you'll be fine.

One of them was testing really inconsistent ohm reading and the others looked 'ok' but you can see on the plugs they didn't appear to be heating up very uniformly. haven't had a chance to bench test these on a battery yet to see what kind of temperature/distribution they are giving off. Hopefully this solves my problem.


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## kelaog (Aug 1, 2019)

boraz said:


> today is the sposed last day of cold, she hasnt liked starting erry day, but has started
> 
> dunno if glow plugs are doin what the should or???
> 
> will check later


I've been having issues too, basically anything below -18 it won't start and doesn't like starting at all even at -18.

Remote start in cold weather failures | Chevrolet Cruze Forums (cruzetalk.com) 

This was my thread. Just changed the glow plugs as per my post above. I'll let you know if that solved it.


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## TDCruze (Sep 26, 2014)

kelaog said:


> Just pulled mine at 200k.
> 
> One of them was testing really inconsistent ohm reading and the others looked 'ok' but you can see on the plugs they didn't appear to be heating up very uniformly. haven't had a chance to bench test these on a battery yet to see what kind of temperature/distribution they are giving off. Hopefully this solves my problem.


It would be interesting to see the bench test on those.


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## kelaog (Aug 1, 2019)

TDCruze said:


> It would be interesting to see the bench test on those.


Will do tomorrow. I'll get my spare battery charged up and pull the jumper cables from my car. I'll video it. I suspect that they will heat up similar to how they look . I'm gonna buy a new multimeter tomorrow that can read temp. It would be neat to see what kind of temperature they are hitting. these should hit 1000c from the factory but I'm really doubting they are still doing that...


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## kelaog (Aug 1, 2019)

kelaog said:


> I've been having issues too, basically anything below -18 it won't start and doesn't like starting at all even at -18.
> 
> Remote start in cold weather failures | Chevrolet Cruze Forums (cruzetalk.com)
> 
> This was my thread. Just changed the glow plugs as per my post above. I'll let you know if that solved it.


It solved it. Started like a fresh summer day in -25 last night. Posted a video in my thread above.

Not sure how many KM you have on your car Boraz but I had 192k km on mine and was having issues with cold starting last couple years. No check engine light. Pretty sure the glow plugs were duds but still passed the ECU checks. It has never started/idled that nicely in those temps before.

Glow plugs are on rock auto cheap $30/cad per plug. 2014 CHEVROLET CRUZE 2.0L L4 DIESEL Turbocharged Diesel Glow Plug | RockAuto


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Hmm...I do wonder now. Sometimes ours can take a few revolutions to get going when it's 15-20 degrees (F), maybe the glow plugs are starting to work less efficiently...


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