cold starting 4.2 nissan deisel 2000

Assuming the glow plugs are working, turn the ignition on and wait till the dash light goes out and and wait 10 secs, turnoff ignition and turn back on again ,wait till the dash light goes out and wait another 10 secs and try starting, it should make a big difference to starting... I had the same problem with same model and engine.. Michael

Bigroh,
It has nothing to do with the glowplugs, nothing electrical either... Nor the injectors.

You will find that it is OK as soon as the combustion chambers get some heat.

To comply with pollution control laws, (more specifically) NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) when the engine is hot, they had to retard the injection timing slightly, as a result when the combustion chambers are very cold, unburned fuel, white smoke and misfiring occurs for about one minute (less if you put it under some load) ie drive out of the garage or similar.
The newer models have incorporated electronic injection timing so that when is cold the timing is advanced and once normal temperatures have been reached injection timing is slightly retarded again.
We are talking very slightly so there is no performance difference.

You can choose to change the timing as per GQ specifications (same engine but different pump) and emmit Nitrogen Oxides or leave it as it is and put up with the rough cold starts.

To minimise it (if you choose to leave it) you follow this process to start it:
When you turn the ignition on and the glow light goes out, don't start it, wait another two seconds and you will hear the relay clicking off, that is really when the glow plugs turn off (not when the light goes out) then crank it...
You can also choose to glow twice when very cold....

I hope this also helps those people wondering why their GUs do this when the GQs don't etc....

William

It could be the quaulity of your oil as well had a rodao which really started to rattle in winter next oil change did it myself brought some caltex turbo max quieten down alot.

thanks for your comments guys. i have tried those ideas and it has made a differance in the morning, but sometimes i have tried heating twice and it was ok and then other time iv had to heat three or more times to get a sold idle, im a technician by trade and what i would like to do is modifie the glow time to exstend to about 30 or 40 seconds and then i should never have to worrie again, has anybody got a copy of the heating circuit, or even how i would find a service manual that has a good circuit diagram of the whole car !!!