Thread: TD5 Glow Plugs

I just did my D1's glow plugs yesterday.
All the old ones recorded high-ish resistance.
(you don't want high resistance either, you want low resistance so that all the voltage/current can heat the tip up properly)
New plugs made for instant starting in the cold(from cold) now... whoot!

Going to do brother's TD5 glow plugs one day soon too, but they look impossible to reach/access.
Did your mechanic remove the inlet manifold for access. Can't see any other way to remove them.

ps. I just got some off ebay, cheap 'nuff. As long as they get me through this winter.

Thanks Ak83 i'm glad you had a win with your glow plugs, my head is on the bench just picked it up from the head rebuilders who pulled the GP's out , all of mine are open circuit with no resistance showing on my meter at all. I will order new ones off Mario and Heather i was just wondering why my plugs are all stuffed at once.

Originally Posted by whitey56

.... i was just wondering why my plugs are all stuffed at once.

I'd say the more likely scenario is that they all slowly committed suicide, have never been replaced.
So one by one, just like the 10 green bottles, or the five little ducks .. they ceased operation, and now that they're getting attention they all appear to have died 'at once'.

Why get new glow plugs, who waits for them to heat up?

In Australia there is little chance of needing the glow plugs to work. My Land Rover dealer argued with me when I asked for a set of glow plugs for my 300TDI, he claimed they were totally unnecessary

You just get in and turn the key to start and the motor is running, no glow plug..

Mind you, if one is lost that could cause a problem!!

Mike

Originally Posted by nismine01

Why get new glow plugs, who waits for them to heat up?

In Australia there is little chance of needing the glow plugs to work. My Land Rover dealer argued with me when I asked for a set of glow plugs for my 300TDI, he claimed they were totally unnecessary

You just get in and turn the key to start and the motor is running, no glow plug..

Mind you, if one is lost that could cause a problem!!

Mike

I'm sure it'd get cold enough in the Adelaide Hills area to need glow plugs, but I dunno.
Mine would take at least 30 sec of cranking on a cold morning(from cold) to begin to splutter to life, where I'd then have to feather the throttle violently to coax it to actually fire.
I replaced the plugs from cold, so that the engine was still cold when I first fired it up, and start was an immediate <1sec affair.
Same this morning, was slightly colder(~ <10°C) as I started it up earlier than I did yesterday(~ 10°C).

My experience is that they make a massive difference.
plugs were cheaper than a pack of smokes, so the cost factor was insignificant.
If you don't have the dreaded 30+ seconds of cranking that some diesels may need on a cold-ish morning .. then for sure you don't need to worry about them.

But in saying that too tho, I'm 99.9% sure I have a possible faulty injector too, hence why I'm changing them all(precautionary).

before glow plug change, idle immediately after start, ie. the first 30 sec was rough as guts, lumpy and slower than normal .. about 60-ish rpm.
But with the glow plug change(and to my surprise) it idles smoothly and more like about 750-ish rpm just with the plugs.
Certainly wasn't expecting better idle during the cold idle time.

But my issue with what I think is an injector problem, is that when cold, but after about 10 or so sec once the oil has had time to circulate, if I try to maintain a very fast idle(and hold it there), somewhere between about 1100-1200, it starts to run very rough .. like it's missing.
between about 1200-1600rpm, and held there(when cold), it's very rough(whereas at idle it's very smooth now) and it billows lots of smoke.
It will maintain this smokyness at 1500rpm with the very rough feels like a miss running until it's starts to build some temperature up.
My temp gauge only starts to show from 50°C, but this temperature crossover from running pretty crappy to running fine, is below that 50°C mark, so I haven't really sussed it out.
Even during this cold running time when the engine feels rough at 1500rpm, if I then push it to about 1750rpm, it then smooths out and stops smoking as well.

The other weird aspect: I sometimes work 13hrs, so the car can sit at work out in the open and frosty night air, and it doesn't do it.

In the UK if the day was below zero, like say -5 or something. I *might* wait for the whole glow plug cycle on the 200 and 300 TDi vehicles I had back there. On the series 3 2.2 NA old school, I would probably go through 2 or 3 cycles of glow plugs/keep them on for 30 seconds.

I really, honestly, from actual experience of slightly low temperatures, imagine needing the glow plugs to do much more than fill the hole effectively in Australia.
With the electronic injection I am surprised the TD5 even has them, most modern ones don't they just change the injection point (and I reckon the TD5 does too).

Other comparisons - the viscous was removed from the defender 200tdi, I had an electric for when needed and used off road at low speeds. I *needed* the electric about 3 times (while not off road) in the UK, two when I'd been cruising at 70mph and hit traffic so went to zero and sat there and the other was when I had the rad fins full of mud and had no cooling after a trip.
But I'd not run without the viscous here, I reckon it's well involved in keeping everything happy, even in 'winter' (which is temperature wise comparable to most of the UK summer on average).

It's easy to forget that the same car can go from desert to antarctic with no/little changes. So your TD5 is designed to start in -40 Norway and +50 Saudi...

No way mine will start if I don't wait ,300TDi, that is. Never noticed in the TD5, it just started.

All good reading guys, I will still renew my GP's as a process of elimination as the Disco before the pull down would start cold on the first or second compression then 60% of the time would stall, I still have to check the air bleed valve at the filter but hoping new injector washers and GP's will fix this.

Thanks for the replies.