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Well nothing more to report yet sadly. Linked up a second, new and freshly charged battery today, after disconnecting old battery and leaving for 5 minutes. Same crazy electrical problems, though the locks weren't constantly cycling this time (maybe they've blown the fuse, didn't check). I do wonder if maybe the ignition barrel switch could be causing an amount of fun as the dash not turning off at shutdown is a new thing, and doesn't happen every time but does most times I switch off. I'll keep trying when weather etc allows...

Thanks for the thoughts on it. I think you're right, getting any professional to look at it will inevitably result in a money drain unless there's a lot of luck involved. I'm thinking of a battery trial to start with. I have a good option to try, albeit it will only be a temporary effort on the driveway as it won't fit to use properly. I'll have a crack with it at the weekend if the weather let's me. Fingers crossed.

My 06 2.8crd appears to have gone mad. It's developed a habit of opening the sliding doors a lot, and the boot too sometimes, over and over. If I don't remove the IOD fuse and door relay they just keep going. Now the door locks continually cycle when the car's started and not running. Also, the dash takes a minute or so to turn off when the key is removed from the ignition. Is this all bad battery related, from it being discharged perhaps (charged now), or does something else tend to cause this? It's feeling like it might be getting dangerous and time to scrap it unfortunately, and I really don't want to! Thanks for any help.

I'm going to prod this again, cos I can't believe no one knows..! Any thoughts?

Is really no one able to advise? I thought it might be obvious to someone who knows their stuff (clearly not me!)...

Ref the pic below, on my 2007 2.8 CRD there's a sensor at the point that the air intake pipe between the MAF sensor and the turbo inlet branches off to the oil seperator. I've been working towards changing the thermostat, and that sensor is leaking oil on top of the engine (a little). On removing the connector to the sensor the connector's full of oil too between its 2 contacts. Can anyone advise what the sensor is please, and if the oil is a problem? Thanks!

I did also have a 1.5mm hole drilled in my temporary thermostat - and I know people have it working for them but it didn't for me. I did consider drilling lots of holes to see if it still overheated (or underheated) like that but thought I'd give the proper stat a go.

Hello there. Yes, I did indeed have the wiper module off. The thermostat was still just about impossible to get at with the intake pipe in the way. What I didn't proceed to do, as I had at that point spotted I had the wrong replacement thermostat, was to have a look from underneath to see if the intake pipe could be accessed for removal from the turbo: anyone know? Luckily I hadn't drained coolant, so not too much time spent! Thanks.

I know this is 2 years old, but for any others who get sucked in reading it and deciding to have a go at replacement of the thermostat, if you have a late 06 onwards CRD you probably have a thermostat with a wired temp sensor to it, per the original poster with a mechanic who tried to fit the earlier mid-06-and-previous thermostat, which doesn't feature the temp sensor there and so there is no trapping for it. I suspect that the same change coincides with the air inlet manifold changing too. That means that on the late 06 onwards, the inlet hosing does not remove easily per the 'Auto Shaman' YouTube vid. For me (yes, late 06 CRD) that means access to change the thermostat is almost non existent, and since I have the wrong stat anyway without the tapping, that means I've had to give up for now! I also have tried the inline stat trick and found it stopped working after a couple of hundred miles, probably as it's too remote from hot coolant flow from the engine until almost too late.

Cracked fuel filter housing I bet. Was on mine. Search for that and you'll find what I mean I reckon.

Have you tried the earth lead connection to the starter motor? That was the trouble with mine with similar symptoms a year or so back IIRC. A quick wiggle and it magically sprang back to life. Replaced the spade connector with a new one after and it's not done it again. Good luck!

Be interested in an answer too (sorry, not from me) as I had the multi DVD fail too recently. Managed to fix it mechanically for about half an hour after taking it all apart and supergluing a bit, but it didn't last and all looked a bit feeble anyway. My take on it was to use the video-in on the front of that instead, which works fine, with a USB stick media player (about £25). Note that the IR receiver for turning the screen on is on the multi DVD unit itself strangely - does the single disc unit have the same?

Mine were push in - I only took one bit apart, which was a clipped together fitting. The rest didn't need to so I couldn't say. Hope it fixes ok.

I had the same a couple of months ago. Just need to remove the plastic panel that the nozzles poke through with the bonnet up. Bike pump did the trick for me fairly easily.

Hello there. Sadly there's not a lot in the way of options. Probably about £50 from that well known auction site, unless you're really lucky. Alternatively the best option would be to get a £10 learning remote and someone with a DVD remote you can borrow for a couple of minutes if you can. Don't get excited about popping a code into one to get that to work though as I don't think you'll get lucky - I tried the same for hours and gave up and got a remote from the US via that auction site...!

Hello there, Did the same a few weeks back, wasn't too bad. Have you checked out http://www.chryslerforum.co.uk/topic/4518-not-turning-over-general-starting-fun-on-28crd/? There's some bits on it there.

Thanks for that - I thought the same and went for it this evening. It was a bit of a mission considering it was only glow plugs - ridiculously difficult in fact for a service item like that I'd say - but a quick attempt at starting afterwards had it starting better than it ever has done for me so a good move I think. Thanks to the YT videos on it, mainly the one in Russian showing the removal of the plug 'through' the partly removed alternator housing.

What's the best plan here? I tested the one easier-to-get-at glow plug on the 2006 2.8CRD the other day and it was dead / open circuit. The others are a bit more of a challenge to get at so I didn't bother even to test them and bought a set of 4 - £35 delivered for the Bosch ones I'm replacing. They turn up, I remove bits to test the others, and of course the other 3 all have pretty low resistance...! Should I replace all anyway? I'm thinking I will, partly as I have them and I guess the others might fail in the winter perhaps, and partly as one of the 3 that tested ok that I removed is a bit sooty. What would you do? Thanks.

Well I got it all changed this morning. As part of it, tightened the spade female conn onto the starter trigger as it wasn't very tight. The purge took a good few pumps, and of course the purge fitting is rubbish for access - poor location the whole thing it seems to me. Anyway, end result so far is that it starts ok, and so far on accelerating as hard as poss up to 60, albeit with less of a load of passengers than when it cut out on the dual carriageway originally, it has been fine. My advice to others attempting the fuel filter housing change would be that you barely need access from underneath - it made a couple of minor bits a little easier, but if I have to do it again I'll do it all from the bonnet. Turns out the next job will be the glow plugs, which looks like a mission to get to. I managed to only access one to test and it's completely dead, so thought I'd get all four and try and get to them another time based on the you tube vids on it. Fingers crossed for that. Thanks for the info on the way - now I'm onto another thread in a bit to work out what all the mess on top of the engine's from...

Managed a bit more. Turns out the fuel hoses aren't easy to get off of the housing. They came eventually but after making a tool to push the uncouplers I had to give up, remove the banjo bolts and get them out then which did the trick. I've also spliced the new cable and connector on - needed crimp, solder and heatshrink all where there's very little room to get to it, but went ok. I've left that there for now as I ran out of time, and went to have a look at the heater section of the old fuel filter housing. The connector is melted and charred all over the place, and probably leaks, but it wasn't terrible so we'll see how it goes. The innards of the connector (inside the housing) was like this: To be continued...

I've made a start this evening (not much time, but pretty slow at this too!) at removing the fuel filter housing to replace with a new one. Not as easy to get to as I'd hoped. I've had to shift the steering fluid res out of the way and hold it there with some ties. I've got it on ramps to get to the bottom too, but I've done most from the bonnet so far. The nuts that hold it on are a bit of a mission to get to, but with a deep offset 16mm spanner I've managed it - nothing from 3 different socket sets could get to them. It would probably be easier if I removed the fuel hoses first, but wanted to leave that bit till last. Got to leave it until tomorrow eve now - and just to add to the fun, where I've got it the sun in the evening makes it mighty difficult to see what's going on! Still, it's entertaining so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Meanwhile, I did spot that starter trigger wire from underneath - thanks for the image QinteQ. I now suspect that the non turnonver event I had was a result of me knocking that to a position of poor contact when fiddling with the filter housing melty plug - it is right next to at and at the same end of the same loom with not much spare wire length between them. Again, once I've swapped the housings and replaced the melty connector I'll see if I can confirm that.

Back again! Thanks for the further info. Slight update for now, in that the no turn over at all has not repeated itself, mysteriously...! Though the battery is not great it does just about enough. IOD with the fact I don't use it frequently means it struggles. With the help from here I've done the 'buttonmod' which feels like it can only help. I have a small solar panel too but even in the summer I reckon that's only a psychological improvement and probably a waste of time with the small panel I have. Meanwhile, does anyone know if the fuel filter housing melty connector being disconnected would prevent turnover though? I'm going to have a fiddle with the housing at the weekend with any luck so might be able to conclude that myself, but if someone knows...? Thanks again.

Yes, thanks for those too. One thing I wonder: if the connector on the side of the fuel filter housing, the one that tends to melt (is it the diesel pre heater?), is disconnected, would the car start? I can't test that as it's a bit temperamental at the moment of course. I had disconnected to inspect previous to the non turnover issue, and as it's not too tidy I guess that could be poor, if any, contact and maybe preventing turnover? Thanks again.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to carry on looking into for a bit then. Could be a combination of problems of course. The cutting out under acceleration bit has me thinking it can't all be battery, but that is a good easy thing to change of course! Thanks again, I'll report back.

Hello all, I've got a 2006 2.8 and have been having various starting trouble. Until today it has been slack on cold starts, usually starting before the battery goes flat - tends to be weekend use only and a couple of weeks drains it - on the 6th or so turnover. I'd changed the rail pressure overpressure valve and that had no effect. I now suspect that it may be more due to to the fuel filter housing. I have the one with the manual primer pump between engine and rad. The pump bulb is always 'limp' and starting improves when primed, though it's usually a couple of turns of the key before it does. Recent inspection of the filter housing heater connector which was very charred has lead me to buy a new filter housing and replacement loom conn set (issue pre and post recent filter changes) which I'm yet to fit. The recent cut out at 50mph on a dual carriageway prompted me to look into that more... Anyway, the problem today for the first time is that it didn't want to turnover at all. After about 2 mins of on and off etc with the key it eventually turned over a little and then nothing, repeating the same pattern for about 10 mins until on only the third brief turnover in that whole time it started. All fine for the journey. Then for the return journey almost 20 mins of the same until an eventual start (wife busy on hold with the AA for most of that time who she didn't even get through to at all...!!). Battery voltage is not bad. I suspect wiring to the starter or the starter solenoid (a wiggle or two of the cables was about all I could manage with no tools today!). Any thoughts would be welcome! Thanks.