'98 1.9d Lingo - Cold Stalling And Plumbing Issue

[Fredward]

Hi everyone, hoping to gain some help here..

 

My 1998 Berlingo has a very annoying cold start issue. The plugs warm as normal, the van turns over and will starts fine. However, in the mornings it will run fine for a few seconds, then suddenly lose power, and splutter to a stop. If I leave it about 5 mins then it ususally starts fine and will run fine from then on. If not then I have to go through the process of cranking it over for about a minute, waking all the neighbours up before it eventually springs to life in a puff of smoke. Once up and running I can't fault the engine. I was going through a daily proceedure where if I parked it with no obstacles in the way I could start it and quickly drive off - the van would almost die but revving the tits off her I could stop it from stalling. The problem is getting progressivly worse and it now mainly stalls halfway down the road.

 

Any ideas?

 

The other issue I had was a passenger footwell full of water and a leaking coolant system which coincided with this. Originally I thought it was maybe a rad leak so bought some rad weld, however then I realised the water in the footwell as well as a lack of any visible leaks on the rad. I can feel where the water is coming down behind the dash somewhere and dripping off the fan unit in the cockpit. I went ahead with the rad weld and it seems to have had some sucess in damage limitation, however I'm not convinced this has stopped and wont come back. Looking under the bonnet I can't see any leaking plumbing, is there a way to check for cracked pipes?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Freddie.