I got myself into a problem......

Monday morning it would not start. The engine turn over and over and the glow plugs work. Silly me I left it all night with less then the 1/4 filled up with diesel and the temprature sank to the single digits in F. My wife got on the car monday morning and cycled the glow plugs and cranked the car till the battery died. Now it's dead with less then quarter of a tank of diesel. How do I charge the batt back up?...do a buy a new battery? or can I charge it by jumping it? I tred to jump it and it still bearly turn over after a the glow plugs turn off and dies. My wife told me it never started when she tried it monday morning. It kept turining over and over and over. After the using the glow plugs. it was about 10 F. This is the first time this happned....it started with lil drama on other colder days and even colder days. The car never acted up until now.

Did the fuel line freeze up? I prolly should of filled it up the day before?

Can I jump charge the battery?...It that safe?..A jump will not get the engine to turn over enough and use the glow plugs.

do I have to wait till its warm up to above freezing? or ferry a few gallons of diesel? there is no garage.

the car is a 1980 300sd with 200,000 miles

thank you again.

Volume of fuel in the tank is probably irrelevant. You should be able to charge it by jumping. You could also use a battery charger. Could be a bad glow plug. Do you know for sure that all glow plugs are working? (I assume an 80SD has the parallel plugs)
Heating it up will do magic. Does it have a block heater? If so, plug it in. A magnetic pan heater can also be of some use if you don't have a block heater.
In a pinch, a bag of charcoal on a tray under the engine compartment might work as long as you make sure nothing catches on fire.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Consider an electric heating pad or halogen work light before fire.

If you are concerned about jumping or charging damage then pull the battery and charge it out of the car or take it to your friendly service station and have them charge it. Their charger is probably bigger and faster than yours anyways.

__________________
Terry Allison
N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama

09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA)
09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)

How old is the battery? If you dont know or its over 4 years old, replace it. Diesels must crank over at a reasonably fast rate to start, unlike a gas engine. Jump starting a car never "charges" a battery. On a diesel, once started, a battery is not even necc except to have voltage ready to restart it. My gut feeling is the battery was weak, the engine was extremely cold and those 2 things kept it from starting. If you would feel better, have the battery slow charged overnight out of the car and load test it after fully charged. If it passes the load test, consider yourself lucky, if it failed, buy another.

__________________
81 300CD (sold) 1972 280 SEL 4.5 (sold) 1966 250 S 4 spd (sold) 1974 450 SL (sold) 86 BMW 325ES (sold), 1973 280C (sold) 1988 300 SE.

What he said and if you don't have a block heater for those temperatures, I would look into one. It will keep the wife happy and that is very important.

What I found with jumping my D's is it needs large gauge jumper cables - no less than a 6 gauge. Their batteries are 850 to 1000 CCA. A small gauge cable cannot hold that much amps. Someone tried jumping using a 12 gauge and it would not respond.

Secondly, it also helps to jump it from a car with similar size battery.

Or, if the battery is rechargeable, I would charge it (assuming you have a battery charger) overnight. Make sure you follow instructions of charger.

__________________
the sooner you start... the sooner you'll get done If it ain't broke, don't fix it.. Its always simpler to tell the truth...
2007 Honda Accord EX
2007 Honda Accord SE V6
96 C220
97 Explorer - Found Another Home
2000 Honda Accord V6 - Found Another Home
85 300D - Found Another Home
84 300D - Found Another Home
80 300TD - Found Another Home
Previous cars:
96 Caravan
87 Camry
84 Cressida
82 Vanagon
80 Fiesta
78 Nova
Ford Cortina
Opel Kadet
68 Kombi
Contessa

check and see if your fuel is gelled first. all of this battery charging will only get the engine to turn spin if the fuel is gelled. On the drivers side of the engine behind the "oil filter", it is actually a screw on fuel filter, looking thing on the front pulleys and infront of the IP there should be a transparent inline filter. they usually have a small air pocket in them.

with a flashlight, move the filter to see if the bubble moves. if it does then no gelled fuel, if it does not then you have to warm the fuel up. i have also heard that Power Service makes a product called something 911. it is supposed to ungel gelled diesel. take the fuel filter, screw on type in the front, off pour some of that in there. then the rest in the tank and let it sit for a bit. then with a nice fresh charged battery try and fire her up.

__________________
-Trevor

OBK #12
1980 300SD 333,XXX miles - Totaled
1986 Mazda RX-7 212,XXX miles - impounded and auctioned off
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited 33,000- SEGR, Provent, Fumoto