Glow plug issue??

[edwin]

Hi,

I have a 91 2.4 and when it has been sat cold say over night she needs a coupld turns of the key and foot on throttle to start. When she does start its very smokey and runs rough but then after 30 secs or so runs sweet.

I thought that this may be the glow plugs and have tried to test them but not sure if I have done it right. This is how I did it - I didnt remove anything I just put my mulitmeter on the top of the plug and then earthed it somewhere in the bay, I left the ignition off and took the reading on the 200ohms setting. I got a reading of around 1.1 - 1.2 ohms for each plug.

If this is the case do they not need replacing? Or have I done something wrong? Or does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be causing the issue?

PLEASE HELP!!! I am not very mechanically minded so sorry if my question seems simple!! Thanks very much!!

Ed.

[stormforce]

scroll down this page Ed as theres some links to threads about the glow plugs.You may find what your after in one of them

[edwin]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply I have had a look at those threads but am still a bit stuck as to whether it is the glow plugs that need replacing.

Ed.

[davec170]

Does sound like no glow plugs.

Put multimeter in to DC Volts range. Put positive probe to top of any plug, put negative probe to Earth. Turn on ignition. You should get approximately 12V supply, lasting for about 15/20 seconds. If so then you have proved the fuse and time delay relay to be serviceable. To check the resistance of individual plugs you need to remove the power feed that connects all four. Remove the little nuts from the top of each glow plug and pull the wiring out of the way. Resistance check them as you did before. Generally, any that show open circuit are duff. (They don't go short circuit without blowing the fuse). You'd have to be tight not to change them as a set though, even if only a couple were knackered.

[farmer]

I posted a thread on this a few weeks back. It was my 1st posts, and the mods put it in general discussion, which I guess is the right place since they're in charge. IMO it would have gone here. anyways...

Depending on how cold it is where you are, you may need to let the glow plugs cycle a few times. Does your have "the beep" that lets you know when they are actually off? They go (iirc) at 12V for the first few seconds, until the light goes off, and then a while longer until the beep starts in my 1990 2.4L surf.

I was always getting a lot of white smoke (vaporized, unburnt diesel) and missing of a couple cylinders at first when it was cold and tried to only let them cycle once. If I turn the key on and off a few times, so they have longer to warm up, it starts much easier and runs a lot smoother at first.

Or, you may have faulty glowplugs.

Just to give you an idea of temps, I've had my method work fine down to -10*F. I have tried at -20F, but my diesel gelled up so I had to bring it into my buddy's garage to let it warm up.

(BTW, conoco can go to hell for not putting enough antigell in their diesel to even make it until late november.)

[edwin]

Hi,

Thank you to all for the reply, I have checked the volatge coming from the plugs when the ignition is swithced on it hits about 10v and then drops quite quickly. Starting to think that this is the issue, the glow plugs are not glowing for long enough.

The fuse has gone but before anyone says I'm an idiot the fuse terminals are touching as a quick fix before I tackle the annoying issue of replacing a fuse (why they could not make this as easy as pulling it out i do not know).

Would this quick fix of the fuse be affecting the length of time that the glow plugs are glowing for? Sorry if this does seem trivial!! I really appreciate all the help though!

Ed.

[garry]

hi if you are taking them out to test them, you may as well replace them.
i bought a set of four and fitted them today from the local motorfactors just over £7 each NGK's don't to forget to put a bit of coppper slip on the threads before you put them back

[Albannach]

On a 2.4, there are 2 voltages at the glow plug busbar, 10.5 then 6.5, check that first. If nothing and you can hear the relays clunking, it's the 80A fuse, if the voltages are OK, it could be either the plugs (check them individually as above), or the batteries (duff batteries won't spin the engine fast enough.

Farmer, on your Conoco gripe. Winter diesel gets produced from around the middle of September, all distributers should have been using it since the beginning of October at the latest.

The temperatures here aren't low enough to gel diesel at the moment, perhaps there is veg or water in there too? And, as a matter of interest, how did you conclude that it had gelled?

[wishbone]

-20 degrees Centigrade sounds pretty low to me....

One thing worth trying is checking that the battery clamps are clean and tight as the original Toyota ones seem a bit crap and have a habit of creeping upwards off the post. (Positive ones - the negative clamps are fine)

This happened to me over the last 2 weeks and now they are all tightened up properly it starts fine again.

Rob.

[Albannach]

-20 degrees Centigrade sounds pretty low to me....

It is very low, irrelevant, but low...

[wishbone]

It is very low, irrelevant, but low...

Only 7 degrees above the pour point Which maybe why Farmer was not happy that it gelled ?

Maybe Farmer can give us more details ?

[Albannach]

Only 7 degrees above the pour point Which maybe why Farmer was not happy that it gelled ?

Maybe Farmer can give us more details ?

It's an irrelevant temperature because it hasn't happened in Norfolk this winter, so won't be the OP's issue.

Mr Farmer is in North America, their specs will be different to the UK and some of Europe.

Minimum UK Spec. is -15 Celcius, minimum European Spec. is as low as -44. Actual UK figures will be much lower (as you pointed out in the Conoco article), especially for Diesel sold in Scotland. I have no idea what US Spec. is. I suppose I could Google it, but I can't be arsed.

[wishbone]

Don't bother googling it - I did and there were no easily found specs.

To be fair Farmer didn't suggest that fuel gelling was the OP's problem. He gave the temps as an example of the temps he'd had success in starting with the 'let the glow plugs cycle a couple of times' method. Then he moaned a bit about Conoco.

I do enjoy our little 'chats'

[farmer]

Thanks wishbone. Those temps are what I have expierenced, and have nothing to do with the OP's problem other than I had similar issues, and cycling the plugs 2-3 times allowed it to start easily in temps down to that.

-20 degrees Centigrade sounds pretty low to me....

Actually, it got down to at least -24*F (based on a buddy's thermometer when he went to work at 5 AM), which translates to ~-32C, or in plain english, ####ing cold!

For whoever asked, I determined that mine was gelled because it got that cold, and although it would crank fine (with a little help from my buddy's dodge), even with ether I couldn't get more than a sputter out of it. When I left it in my buddies heated garage overnight, it fired up fairly easily.

I just re-checked, and the fuel from conoco is rated to -25F. Its my first winter with a diesel, and my first time here in the Rockies, so all this is new to me. I'm adding antigel to each tank now. Learning the hard way I guess.

None of that has to do with the OP though. Like I said, if you determine that the glowplugs are working, just let them warm up a few times. I started having those issues once is started to get below about 5C, and letting them cycle a few times has worked great for me.