[RobC]

Originally Posted by harryms

did you repair your vehicles glow plug issue.

Yes, I did get it repaired. Just got the car back last week. I had been waiting for the warranty approval for the job, which unfortunately was rejected for an obscure reason.

The pattern of my vehicle usage had changed over the 4 years I have had the car. The service interval is 15000 kms / 1 year whichever is earlier. The first 30000 kms were done in about 14 months and hence the service was done by kms rather than time. Subsequently, the service has been done yearly since my running had reduced to about 12-13k a year. Problem is, Coolant had to be replaced at 24 months / 60000 kms, whichever is earlier as per the service schedule. However, based on the above pattern, this happened only at about 27 months. This was cited as reason for rejection of work under warranty.

Discussions with the AGM at the service centre helped in getting a concession in that they would not charge labour for the job except the external lathe charges and the glow plug would be replaced under warranty. However, other parts (gasket) and consumables (including sealant, coolant and oil topup) were charged. Total cost was about 5500.

Have driven the car since for about 300 kms now and have not faced any problems yet.

[harryms]

Yes its so hard to get the extended warranty. They are just waiting to find some reason for rejection, if the service center is not helping shoot an email to fiat. I had two issues for my car one is glow plug and the other was wire to the door on LHS was broken. The FASS (Mohandas motors) told the wiring kit warranty was rejected, I have told them I will escalate to fiat since this is a quality issue of the wire. Then the service manager told they will try once again and inform me. Another thing is that they did not claim for the glow plug till now, that is strange. I am going to talk to the manger today for an update.
And the bad thing is that I have another glow plug warning now .
Why the glow plug issue so common for Fiat. Is the engine killing the glow plug or is it due to a bad quality wiring. After seeing how the wiring kit to the door broke I am very much afraid about the wiring quality.
By the way which garage did you took the car MDM?

[petroguzzler]

Originally Posted by RobC

I had noticed the glow plug warning on my Linea and sent it in for work at the newly opened Fiat exclusive showroom on the NH bypass in Trivandrum, along with a few other jobs that needed to be done. They got back saying that one of the glow plugs was broken and there was no way of extracting it without opening the engine head. Could the more knowledgeable folks on this forum please confirm if this is true?

Sigh. The exact same thing happened to my Vista quadrajet last week. The glow plug warning light was burning and when trying to change them at a FNG, one of the plugs was found to be broken and he told me that the engine head has to be opened to extract it. I just don't understand how the glow plug breaks so easily and whether it is due to wear and tear or improper handling. Anyways, I thought of checking at TASS whether they have the machine to remove the broken plug without opening the head.

[Ch1r44yu]

Originally Posted by GautamC

If one glow plug is not working it means one cylinder is not working, and you may experience some knocking at low revs. This also means that you will be wasting fuel as the fuel will be discharged without being lit. This may affect your mileage. but as long as you don't over load the engine there should be know long term damage if you use it like this for a short while.

Does it mean that one cylinder is not firing at start-up or even after start-up? According to numerous articles, opposite views are citied. Expert's views/suggestions/facts are needed to second that.

If only three cylinders are firing, even after start-up, it's a serious problem to run a three-pot engine!

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Ch1r44yu

Does it mean that one cylinder is not firing at start-up or even after start-up? According to numerous articles, opposite views are citied. Expert's views/suggestions/facts are needed to second that.

If only three cylinders are firing, even after start-up, it's a serious problem to run a three-pot engine!

What is the purpose of the Glow Plug. It acts as a 'hot spot' for the combustion, so in a cold engine, the cylinder may not work. However, once the engine warms up the cylinder starts firing.

Remember the glow plug is not powered on continuously, but only just before the engine is started. Many systems (esp DG sets) do not have any glow plugs.

[aks_karthik]

Just revive the old thread.

I have been facing glow plug issue for last some months. i have tried all sort of things to unwind the seized glow plug.
center two glow plugs has gone kaput and needs a change.
Hope there should not be any issues other than likely problem in starting at cold conditions. let me know if there's any adverse effects on engine/power due to non working glow plugs.
till now, i have driven the car for more than 5K kms and have not observed any starting issues yet even in sub 10 degree places.
the warning lamp has irritated me a lot hence plan to replace glow plug asap.
I have checked with all service centres and most of them have suggested to open the head to remove the seized plugs.

if someone knows a place at chennai to remove the plugs safely, please let me know.

[--gKrish--]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

Just revive the old thread.

I have been facing glow plug issue for last some months. i have tried all sort of things to unwind the seized glow plug.
center two glow plugs has gone kaput and needs a change.
Hope there should not be any issues other than likely problem in starting at cold conditions.

While you are at it, please do get the glow plug preheating controller checked.

I got all four glowplugs changed a year ago. One failed in 3 months and got it changed rightaway only to see the error come back in a couple of months. If the controller is faulty, it'll keep burning the plugs in no time.

Gokul

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by --gKrish--

While you are at it, please do get the glow plug preheating controller checked.

I got all four glowplugs changed a year ago. One failed in 3 months and got it changed rightaway only to see the error come back in a couple of months. If the controller is faulty, it'll keep burning the plugs in no time.

Gokul

Thanx Gokul.
Nope the issue is not the premature failure of glow plug. i need to remove seized glow plug to replace the faulty.
Controller has been checked and it's quite good.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

center two glow plugs has gone kaput and needs a change.
Hope there should not be any issues other than likely problem in starting at cold conditions. let me know if there's any adverse effects on engine/power due to non working glow plugs.
till now, i have driven the car for more than 5K kms and have not observed any starting issues yet even in sub 10 degree places.


if someone knows a place at chennai to remove the plugs safely, please let me know.

The problem when you remove a 'stuck' glow plug is if it breaks, fragments will fall into the cylinder which will cause scoring. Most failed glow plugs will not shatter by themselves. My experience is limited to the used Isuzu engines I used to supply.
Other than starting issues in a cold climate, it will not cause any issue as long as your engine compression is good. The engine will be a bit rough after starting. But that will go away as the engine warms up.

BTW, which place did you go for sub 10 degree ambient temperature ?

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by Prowler

BTW, which place did you go for sub 10 degree ambient temperature ?

some place near Bodi hills (Agamalai @ night time )

[mobilecentric]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

Just revive the old thread.

I have been facing glow plug issue for last some months. i have tried all sort of things to unwind the seized glow plug.
center two glow plugs has gone kaput and needs a change.
Hope there should not be any issues other than likely problem in starting at cold conditions. let me know if there's any adverse effects on engine/power due to non working glow plugs.
till now, i have driven the car for more than 5K kms and have not observed any starting issues yet even in sub 10 degree places.
the warning lamp has irritated me a lot hence plan to replace glow plug asap.
I have checked with all service centres and most of them have suggested to open the head to remove the seized plugs.

if someone knows a place at chennai to remove the plugs safely, please let me know.

So finally did you get those plugs removed? Was the head opened or did you find some other mechanic with special tool to get them out?

[aks_karthik]

Originally Posted by mobilecentric

So finally did you get those plugs removed? Was the head opened or did you find some other mechanic with special tool to get them out?

Nope, as of now, without removal of engine head, we are unable to unscrew glow plugs. i tried almost everywhere.
Silver Streak has been running with 3 glow plugs since then without much issues so far.

[mobilecentric]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

Nope, as of now, without removal of engine head, we are unable to unscrew glow plugs. i tried almost everywhere.
Silver Streak has been running with 3 glow plugs since then without much issues so far.

Now, because the MID does not flash which glow plug(s) is/are not working , the only option to know if one of the working three have failed is to keep checking them at regular intervals, correct?
Can we fool (jugaad) the glow plug controller with some dummy plug/circuit/tool by connecting it to the glow plug connector , so that the "Check glow plug" message no longer flashes and we can even come to know if a working glow plug has just malfunctioned.
I do not have a electronics background so this can be a stupid assumption, but looking at some videos I understood that when they check with a multimeter a bad one has high resistance or no continuity, so maybe there is already something out there that may help. Does anyone have any clue if such a thing can be done/exists?

[humyum]

I had one glow plug stuck in my Swift diesel a couple of months back and that was the one that was kaput. It kept bringing the check engine light up and that irritant is something I had to get out no matter.

So one day, I sat with the technical guy called Hussain bhai at Ravi Automobiles and a bottle of WD40. We kept trying to turn it left right, left right with WD40 sprays every 1 minute or so, after 15-20 minutes of this exercise, finally with a yank it loosened and the plug was out. Replaced it with a new one and opened all the other glow plugs too and sprayed them with WD40 to fit them back again with the right torque.

During my next oil change visit, we opened all of them again just to check if its all well and they all opened pretty quickly and easily.

[mobilecentric]

Originally Posted by humyum

I had one glow plug stuck in my Swift diesel a couple of months back and that was the one that was kaput. It kept bringing the check engine light up and that irritant is something I had to get out no matter.

So one day, I sat with the technical guy called Hussain bhai at Ravi Automobiles and a bottle of WD40. We kept trying to turn it left right, left right with WD40 sprays every 1 minute or so, after 15-20 minutes of this exercise, finally with a yank it loosened and the plug was out. Replaced it with a new one and opened all the other glow plugs too and sprayed them with WD40 to fit them back again with the right torque.

During my next oil change visit, we opened all of them again just to check if its all well and they all opened pretty quickly and easily.

Yes, it will either come off easily or you need to be patient and take it slowly. If need be, to try a few days later but keep spraying penetrant regularly. A skilled mechanic will know how to handle stubborn glow plugs and s/he will never apply force that could break them. Best is to use a torque wrench.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=237qFx5SCa4

A textbook approach/procedure is shown in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYjyPuhbx-4

But if luck is not on your side and the glow plug breaks, there are a lot of specialised tools to extract them. Unfortunately even authorised service centers don't have these :(

But a lot of youtube videos show a way of drilling and taking out the cracked/broken glow plugs, adding these as these are the clearest ones :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuDpZDIanEw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whbHM98ypPM