Change in starting engine .

[olympia5776]

2001 2.0 tddi 75 hp 109K miles .
I've owned the van for 15 years now and it has always started immediately when starter engaged .
Last weekend I noticed, suddenly, it took several churns of the engine to catch and since then on each start it has taken longer to " fire " than before .
The van has sat since Friday night and tonight I went to start it and it churned over four or five turns before starting . When I say churned it was if it was trying to catch but just couldn't fire up.
Upon each start after that it fired quicker but not as fast as it used to.
I then noticed the water in fuel filter lamp stayed on for a couple of seconds after firing and there was also a strong diesel smoke smell in and around the van when running.It may be imagination but I also thought it was down a little in power too this week.
Fuel Filter was changed 2K miles ago and prior to that each year ,and the van is serviced by myself every 5 K miles and repaired professionally when it's something either I can't or don't want to do .....
Would water contaminated diesel ,and therefore a the filter warning light coming on ,cause these starting symptoms ?

I'll fit a new filter tomorrow and see if that helps but there is half a tank in there .

[olympia5776]

No thoughts.....?

I found the cable for the water sensor on the filter was not connected , no idea why.
Before rconnecting I opened up the drain to see if there was wter in it but it seemed to be good diesel that trickled out.
It's much worse today and I believe it's drawing in air somwhere.
Iirc the symptoms are similar as to when the filter head assembly had to be replaced about 12 years ago.
Anyway ,might be stranded here at close of the day......

[Mad Husky]

On mine i have had a filter leak (air getting in) after only a few thousand miles similar symptoms poor starting tried everything then last ditch changed the filter back to it's usual snail like self. MIght be worth a go might solve it might not.

[olympia5776]

Just to close this off .

The starting issue got steadily worse ,albeit with the occassional " normal start " periods ...until eventually even a spray of ether made little or no difference . One thing though and that was on my early model the fuel filter assembly has a priming pump and this sometimes made a slight difference to the number of turns that the engine required to start . Air bubbles could also be seen in the clear plastic filter reset when the primer was used.
I bit the bullet and fitted a new alloy bodied fuel filter assembly with fresh filter and that has cured the problem. The old plastic one was fitted by Ford MD some 13 years ago when the same but worse symptoms occurred , the one that that replaced was also plastic.
So all is well again ,starts as soon as starter engages .