[Vwdiesel] Burned out glow plugs

[Val Christian]

Sounds like:

a. dripping injectors
b. possibility that glow plug relay may be cycling during normal engine 
run (this has happened to me a couple of times, esp with relays that 
are "water damaged")

I defer to the many experts, as my experience is limited to a dozen cars
over about 27 years, with only a couple of million miles on each.

How old are your injectors?

Val


> 
> Have a puzzler for the collective wisdom of the group.  Over the last 
> several weeks, we have had a few mornings when the temps were in the 
> low 60's a couple in the 50's.  My son has been driving my turbocaddy 
> every day to work and informs me that he is having trouble getting the 
> car started on those cool mornings.  After checking all of the easy 
> things (good battery, good starter, power to glow plugs etc) I tested 
> the glow plug bar with the ohm meter and got.......NOTHING!  Yes that 
> is right, nothing no resistance at all!  Puzzled now, I pulled the 
> first glow plug and found a small piece missing from the plug.  Not at 
> the end, like I am used to seeing when you have a leaky injector, but 
> about 1/8-1/4" back from the tip.  Checked it with the battery charger 
> and sure enough, no glow.  Now I decided I must bite the bullet and 
> pull all of the plugs, a hard chore made harder by the "spaceship" on 
> the turbo pump.  Anyway, all plugs out, all plugs dead!  One other 
> plug, had a small piece missing also but the other two looked OK 
> visually but all tested no glow with the battery tester.  Luckily I had 
> some used plugs from the Ecodiesel engine that I bought so I just 
> swapped those in and vrooom, car starts right up.  When my son got here 
> last night, we hooked a volt meter to the glow plug bar and timed the 
> glow plug relay - 7-9 seconds with power to the glow plugs, then relay 
> clicks and no power to plugs.  So here is my problem, the plugs were 
> new when I put the engine together so they have ONLY 10000 miles on 
> them.  What gives?  I didn't check to see if power came back to the 
> plugs after start up, but I can't imagine the relay closing again after 
> the key is in the run position.  Any input would be appreciated.  I am 
> down to only 3 fast plugs in my possession so I can't replace them all 
> again without an outlay of money and I would rather not do that.  BTW 
> they were Bosch glow plugs, I don't buy anything else.  hayden
> 
> Visit my website at  www.home.earthlink.net/~dieseltdi
> Proud owner of:
> 2004 Passat TDI GLS, 2.0l, 8 valve, 134 HP, 247 lb/ft of torque, Blue 
> Graphite, Anthracite leather interior, ABS, ESP.
> 1998 Jetta TDI (Wetterauer Chipset, 2 1/2" exhaust, K&N Filter, 116K+ 
> miles, and running biodiesel)
> 1981 Rabbit Pickup ( with a freshly rebuilt turbo engine, 7K+ on engine 
> now), burns biodiesel and a WVO system is in the works.
> 1981 Scirocco awaiting a turbodiesel transplant.
> One, yet to be finished, Caddy trailer (the back end of the truck that 
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> forgotten.
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