Diesel "Chokes"

E92

Ok first of all I know chokes don't exist in a diesel, but I once saw a Mitsubishi Pajero and Toyota Land Cruiser (Jap Imports) and they had a choke sign on them. Nothing strange about seeing a car with a choke sign of course, but these were diesels! I assume these are 'cold starters' for these engines. But how do they work and what do they do? Are they there for the same reason a choke in a carburettor petrol is? All answers appreciated.

peasant

The one on my old 1.6 l VW diesel basically just flooded the engine with diesel ...sooner or later some of it would ignite. Cue big clouds of black smoke, push it back in and away you went

maidhc

They are just throttle levers AFAIK. Pulling them back was the same thing as pushing the accelerator. Useful for offroading and running a PTO I would assume.

dohouch

Peugeot diesels used to have an automatic advance for the diesel injection pump, that worked through a mechanical cable that was connected to a thermostatic thingy on the water circuit. When cold it would advance the injection point and as it heated up would release and let the injection point come back to normal. Modern car diesels are all electronic and would do the same but through electronic control of injection point. I believe.

macnab

I had a 00 reg diesel VW which had a "choke" AFAIK it is an advancer similiar to the above but a manual version.

Mahatma coat

I'm fairly sure that anything choke realted on the landcruiser is an automatic function, but it too has one of those things, but mine says throttle on it, its very handy when yer fengin it across an outback highway and yer right foot gets itchy