Can you bump start diesel cars?

[D O G]

Simple question really - my mate is in a fix, and wondering if we can bump it. He thinks not.

Apparently the 'coil' light only stays on very briefly, and then the car wont turn over. Jump starting didn't work?

I have no idea about diesels really - its a Clio, P reg I think.

Any ideas whatsup?

[NSR Mick]

Sounds like battery is flat.

No reason why you cant bump it. Might not be too easy though if the glow plugs havent had chance to work.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

While in theory you might be able to, practice without the glow plugs warmed up it is going to struggle to fire, and with the compression it is going to be difficult to bump (mechanical pump needs to turn to provide the fuel as well).

All the best

Keith
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[Sparks!]

You can bump start diesels yes... but it might not work with the problems you're having... if it won't jump start then I can't see why it'd bump start..... ? sounds like it needs a bit more investigation into the problem first..
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Given long enough to get some charge into the battery jump starting might well work. But diesels need far more power to crank over the starter.

All the best

Keith
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[John C]

Last monday my car started taking an age to fire in the morning. Obviously I changed the glow plugs and corrected the problem as soon as I had the time (at the weekend), but by the time it got to Thursday morning the battery wasnt very happy and didn't have the oomph to get the engine to fire.

Fortunately, predicting this might be the case, I'd parked facing down the hill so simply took the hand brake off (took the steering lock off first ), rolled to about 20mph, gave it one heat of the plugs with what was left in the battery, and then banged it in second and let the clutch out.

Took about 10 seconds and slowed me down to about 10mph but then it fired and off I went.

So yeah, you can bump start a diesel, but because of the higher compression ratio (compared to petrols) it can be a little more difficult. The diesel only burns due to the heat created by the high compression. So you will have 2 problems, namely pushing it with the engine turning and secondly getting enough speed to generate the required heat in the combustion chamber (glow plugs can only do so much).

If it's a 1.9 diesel engine in a light-weight clio, you're probably not going to have much joy bumping it in anything lower than second or even third gear (it'll just stop or lock the wheels depending on the road surface). Use a higher gear and get some speed up / push down hill / tow it.

With a higher gear it's easier to turn the engine, but you'll have to push a lot faster to turn it over fast enough to get it to fire.

HTH

[GodzGift]

[plugger147]

As already answered yes you can, it's much easier to bump on a tow if you have a second car though. Try and be a bit gentle with the clutch though as I have seen one strip a few teeth on the timing belt before now.
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[Finglonga]

Bump started my 18tonne wagon when it had a flat battery and in reverse. Took 8 of the warehouse staff to do it though, as I had loaded it the night before.
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[Paddy Blake]

Yes you can and I have started tractors and trucks that way.If you have
a good hill it is no problem.It helps if you spray easy start stuff in the
inlet first.
The land rovers had a hole in the front bumper for the starter handle and
you could start it if you had the starter handle by hand.

Paddy.

[Cigaro]

Yep, you can bump it, although it's a lot easier if the engine's warm. Best bet is to find a hill and use third gear, as soon as it fires give it some welly until it's running well, as it'll be rough as fuck for the first few seconds with no glow plugs.

If jump-starting doesn't work it could be that the jump leads aren't good enough. I'd invest about £20 in a decent set of leads - seems like a lot but believe me it's worth it.