[mikee55]

Hi all, haven't been here a while. Separated from the wife last year and its been hectic. I don't wish to go into details, but I now use my car for work as a van. I carpet clean, I go round peoples houses and clean carpets. My 2.0 tdi Vauxhall/Opel Zafira is my workhorse and its not been looked after. I haven't been able to do a service on it, and haven't had time. Lately its been having starting problems. I have to crank the engine over quite a bit to get it to fire. Sometimes its quick, other times its like 4 to 5 10 second cranks to fire it up. Even if the engine is hot from running, incidently , it runs fine once its going. Am I looking at a dirty fuel filter? I put some fuel additive in the tank a few months back, hoping it would last a little longer till I can service it, which was last done February 2011. Surely this problem can't be a dirty filter, it wouldn't give me nearly 100mph that its capable of, I blip that fast to blow out the cobwebs once a fortnight if I can, other than that its a lot of town and built up areas and low speeds/sitting in traffic. I would expect coughing and spluttering when driving, but I don't. Passers by say I'm out of fuel! Thats what its like. Any ideas please?

Mike (single parent)