Bobcat S185 wont start, tried a few things.

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Pifester

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Joined
Aug 9, 2025
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I bought this a few years ago, its always started and ran pretty good. Never had any issues other than self inflicted. A few weeks ago, I moved a trailer with a hitch attachment, put it where it needed to be then ran the bobcat down to where all my attachments are stored to swap it out with a bucket. I started turning to place it, when it gracefully died. It had all the symptoms of running out of fuel. Gauge read about 1/4 th tank, and since I had it nearby, I dropped another 5 gallons in. Same thing, acting fuel starved. opened the fuel drain, there was a little water in it - drained it out, opened the bleeder valve, pumped the siphon till fuel came out and tightened it. Opened the upper ?bleeder? valve at the injector pump, squeezed the buld a few times - didnt see anything, bulb hardened up a bit. Closed the bleeder valve and tried it. nothing. Opened the fuze box, the solenoid relay was 1/2 out of the fitting, pushed it back in - still nothing. Engine turns over fine, a little white smoke, but nothing firing up. Solenoid retracts like it should.

Any ideas of where i should look next?
 
Did swap out the glow plugs, since there was a complete set of new ones with the spare parts that came with it. The 4 I took out were all different, 1 looked sketchy, but they were probably not the issue.
 
2003 Model# S185 with s/n: 519034781

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OK when the issues occurs press and hold for 3 seconds the light button and note the codes. It will be a xx-xx code and if you have more then one it will automatic scroll trough the codes.
 

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