[Vwdiesel] The tale of the bad glow plug or VW mechanic aren't the only clueless ones!

[dieseltdi at verizon.net]

This is a cautionary tale of incompetence by a "trained" dealer  
mechanic but not one from VW!!!  The Saturday before Christmas, the  
wife's 3.0 CRD Grand Cherokee threw a CEL.  A quick check with a  
scanner indicated #2 glow plug fault.  Seeing as the car is still  
under warranty, I took it to the local Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealership  
here in Grapevine, TX.  Sure enough (and seemingly to their surprise)  
it was a burned out glow plug.  It was quickly replaced and the GC was  
returned.  Almost immediately I noticed that the glow plug light now  
cycled twice - one when the key was first turned on and then again  
after the car started but no CEL.  The car was parked until the  
Wednesday before Christmas when the wife called to tell me that as she  
started the car, it threw the CEL again.  Saturday, I returned the car  
to the dealer and the interesting circus began.  First they replaced a  
"intake manifold heater" but the CEL returned, then they removed the  
glow plug harness, tested and reinstalled it, CEL returned, then they  
pulled and tested the glow plug module and found that it was  
internally shorted, so they replace it, but still CEL returned.   
Finally they removed the #2 glow plug again and found that it was  
shorted out (can we say torqued too tight during installation!) and  
that was what shorted out the glow plug module.  Took them 4 days and  
2 trips to the dealer and a bunch of parts to find out that the  
original replaced glow plug was damaged during the install causing a  
cascade of failures.  Point of the story, it isn't just VW mechanics  
that are clueless and dependent on only what the computer tells them.   
Oh well, car runs great now and so far no CEL but we will see tomorrow  
morning when we are supposed to have snow on the ground again.  Hayden

" Those who are willing to sacrifice Liberty for Security, deserve  
neither Liberty nor Security."  Ben Franklin


Visit my website at:  http://mysite.verizon.net/resosxp8/mydieselpages/
Proud owner of:
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD, K&N Filter
2004 Jetta GL PD TDI, Inmotion Tuning Stage 1 Tuning, K&N Filter,  
ScanGauge II
1968 Beetle, my latest project, watch for details
And many, many, many VWs; from a 1946 Beetle (13 Beetles total), to  
Vans (5 - 3 splitties, 2 bay window (both were campers), 1 Vanagon  
Westy, Rabbits (3), Karmen Ghia (1), Jettas (7), Passats (2), Dasher  
(1), New Beetle (1), and Rabbit Pickups (3) most now gone but not  
forgotten.