[Vwdiesel] glow plugs

[Lee Hillsgrove]

  On the subject of glow plugs:

 The check engine light came on in my '98 Jetta TDI about a month or so ago,
and I had a glow plug monitoring code set. Cleared it, and it came right
back. Didn't affect starting until the temperature got down around 10°F or
so - it started down around 0° but you could definitely tell it wasn't
firing on all cylinders. I ordered a set of 4 since the car has 186,000
miles on it and I figured that at $20 each for genuine Bosch, it was well
worth changing all 4 out. I tested them when I got them out, and I have 2
burnt out, not 1. The good ones showed about .6 ohm or so resistance at room
temperature. I hooked them up to my 6 amp battery charger (don't have a 10A)
and the bad ones did nothing, predictably. The good ones pegged the ammeter
past 8 amps, then dropped back to about 6 as the tips began to glow. After
about 10 seconds of glow, the entire heated section was glowing, with the
tip a nice bright orange and the rest a darker orange fading to red. There
was never any problem starting down to about -20°F in the past, so I'm sure
the plugs burnt out this Fall. Not bad longevity, I think.

 I had a used, good plug from one of my 1.6 IDI engines hanging around so I
put that on the charger as well, for reference. It, too, pegged the ammeter
past 8 and dropped back some but never below 8. It took longer to glow and
didn't turn quite as bright orange near the tip, either. I didn't take a
voltage reading but perhaps it wasn't seeing quite as much due to the higher
amp draw and my undersized charger.

 I'll vote for leaving the stock glow plug system as-is if at all possible,
too.

Lee
Oo-v-oO
PP-ASEL
KB1GNI