Glow plug - 3 of 4

[atilius]

Hello,

I have a dilemma....My Corolla Verso D-4D 100kw 333.000 km, is in service and they have found that glow plugs are not working because of short circuite in one. Fuse destroyed and none of them glow.

But also they have found that the plug is not easy to dismount, there is a risk of destryoing it with all consequencies like dismounting engine head. Such repair would cost about 1/4 of vehicle value. Maybe more.

And proposed solution is override the wrong glow plug and start engine only with three of them. I realize that the solution is not the best. I am in country where typical winter time is -5°C, can be rarely -15°C. 

In which solution you would go - to risk and replace wrong glow plug or to override?

 

Thanks for help.

Martin

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Moved to the Corolla club

[Notoyboy]

Hello, from one Martin to another

I've no experience of Toyota diesels, but until 4 years ago, I ran 2 diesel Citroens, from 1988 - 2014, clocking approx 200k miles.  These had indirect injection, whereas newer diesels are direct injection - unsure what yours would be, not that it's IMO very relevant.

I found that when 1 glowplug failed, it was hardly noticeable, particularly in the summer - starting no problem.  However, 2 failed glowplugs in the cold of winter and the engine would immediately become quite difficult to start, involving long spins of the engine, and unburnt fuel smoke from the exhaust .  So my suggestion to you, in view of the difficulty & cost in removing the offending glowplug, would be to leave the failed glowplug out of the circuit, and rely on the remaining 3 glowplugs, as you suggest.  If at some future date, engine starting becomes difficult, then address the issue.  Maybe by then you've decided to change the car.  Modern diesel engines seem to rely a lot less on the glowplugs than on older engines of 80s design vintage such as I had.

[yossarian247]

I agree completely with the above. I ran a Citroen diesel for years with only 3 glowplugs working and other than a very slight judder when cold starting you would never have known.

Direct injection diesels like the D-4D are much less reliant on glowplugs than the old indirect injection diesels so I would have no worries about running a D-4D with 1 glowplug down.

Some early direct injection diesels were actually designed without any glowplugs at all!

 

[Cyker]

I think you'll be fine on 3 - All the glowplugs in my brother's Mk1 Yaris 1.4 D4D have been dead for several months now and the car still starts the same! 

He wanted to get them replaced but they have welded themselves to the engine and everybody he's spoken to is too scared to try to remove them in case they snap off  and scared him with dire warnings of expensive engine work.

(On that theme, if anyone knows how to bypass the glowplugs so that the Check Engine light doesn't keep coming on please let me know!!)

 

[atilius]

OK, thanks for your comments! I think it should be OK, all winter I start without any plug  and if the ambient temperature is below zero, it is harder but it starts. :) So I guess with three plugs it will be very comfortable compare to today :))

[atilius]

My troubles continue....We have bypassed one plug and it looked fine. First start perfect. Next morning perfect. Afternoon bad. Morning perfect, afternoonbad, morning and afternoon bad. 

I become crazy. I have checked by light the supply to plugs and it was there. I have tried to glow plugs 10x but no effect. And it seemed to me that every time the light on dashboard has beend shinning the same time 3-4s. (Ambient temperature -6C).

So when the start is hard it seems to me the same like before when fuse was gone. But now it is OK, there is supply and what else could be a problem?

 

Thank you.

 

[Notoyboy]

Ignoring the dashboard light, have you tried connecting a test light to the glowplugs feed? 

Also, are you still saying that the glowplug which had shorted is still faulty?  I find it a bit odd that a glowplug has short circuited, as in my experience they usually burn out and end up open circuit, although something's happened in your case to blow the fuse.  What was the current rating of the failed fuse which you've replaced?

I'm guessing that the glowplugs are fed through a relay/control unit.  Could this be suspect.

Alternatively, could the difficult starting be due to compression being not so good.  How many miles/km has the engine done?

[atilius]

Yes, I have used test light to see if the plugs are supplied and they are.

The shorted plug is disconnected so there is no influence of it.

The fuse is 80A...

The car has 333000km but I am confused that at begin it was OK and it had behaviour like I supposed, one cylinder was slow and I could hear little bit unstable engine start. So one plug inhibited. Next morning again. But afternoon wrong start like before without connected plugs. Next morning again good and from that moment no proper start....

I am going to visit service in this afternon to measure again glow plugs and see what could be a problem.

Maybe could be also inlet air temperature sensor or whatever else :(

 

[Notoyboy]

Hmmm - I'm beginning to think that maybe the problem lies elsewhere.  As you say, could be a sensor with intermittent fault.  Bit beyond me I'm afraid, as I've no knowledge of your specific engine.