Poor starting xc90 d5 2003
 

Hi please help . My d5 xc90 as just started to take ages to start in the morning.. like it’s turning over but will not fire sometimes this makes the battery flat .. it’s like the fuel is draining back every day and takes ages to start . Be for this it started after within 5 seconds .. glow plug light works .. it’s as if there is no fuel there every morning.. does any one know of this or a fix thanks john

Injector problems is the classic non-start issue on earlier XC90's, but it could be may things. It could also be a small air leak in the system, as you suggest, allowing pressure to drop, but even if that were the case it shouldn't be too severe and should prime itself long before the battery goes flat.

First step I think is to read the fuel pressure when cranking from cold. If the build up is really slow and the car only starts when a certain pressure is reached, next step is a leak back test on all injectors.

Search You Tube for diesel leak off test.

Another check is when it started do you get a cloud of smoke from the exhaust - if so it's more likely glowplugs (diesel being injected but not igniting and building up).

Richard

Does seem to be worse when it’s cold and yes big puff off white smoke when it starts after a bit .. runs fine all day then till next morning.. ?

Sounds very like glow plugs. We had some fail on a Renault and the replacements were sent were the incorrect voltage (the system was set to 7v and they were 12v) so it was fine in summer but a nightmare come the cold weather. Fine when warm and a clod of white smoke when it eventually started. It was made worse on that car by the fact it was push button start and it would only crank the engine for a set time.

Glow plugs
 

Ave removed all 5 plugs and tested them and all 5 not working so hopefully this will start better tomorrow morning in the cold .. thanks all

Whilst nice to have for extreme cold starting, I doubt that new glow plugs are going to make any difference to the original long cranking problem on a common rail diesel.

+1.

I hope that I'm wrong but my bet is still on a faulty injector as DD said.

Keep us updated please, I'm interested to see how this pans out. Thanks.

You would be surprised how hard it is to start one with out them working from stone cold. Our Renault had a common rail engine in fact it was a 2.0 litre one with 150bhp. The difference was night and day with them working. A lot less so once the ambient temp got above about 12 on frosty mornings it was a nightmare to get it started.

I've experimented a lot with the Euro 3 D5 including unplugging all glow plugs and starting from near freezing and it fires up fine.
Not quite as fast as with glow plugs but not slow either and certainly not enough to extend the cranking so much that it flattens the battery.
Try it for yourself. The D5 is a good starter without glow plugs if everything else is ok.

If glow plugs were the only problem, OP wouldn't have the symptoms described so the cause is much more likely to be excessive leak back on an injector dropping the rail pressure as suggested by others.
If pressure is too low the injectors won't even be told to fire so it'll crank away until flat with no chance of starting.
The model year is bang on for this issue too.