Glow plug woes

[BeratE]

It is cold and snowy here in Colorado and so I have recently noticed that my glow system is not doing its job, with very rough starts and multiple attempts needed to get her to fire. You seem to have a more active 1kz crowd on that side of the pond so I thought I would reach out for suggestions. I pulled out the DMM and found that I was not getting 12v to the glow plug bus bar when I turned the key to ON. I pulled the Glow relay and tested that it functions correctly when the signal voltage is applied. I probed the S-REL pin at the ECU and found that it hit 12V for less than a second and then drops to 0V.

What could be going on?

A couple of years ago, I previously tested the system and everything functioned properly. I have not pulled the glow plugs to test individually, partly because the symptoms don't seem to point to a faulty plug and largely because it is much warmer to ask questions through my computer.

Thanks

[BUSHWHACKER]

80A glowplug fuse OK?

[BeratE]

Thanks for the suggestion. I took a peek and it looks in perfect shape to me. Do you think this would happen if there were a grounding issue somewhere? I am really stumped by this as I can't think of anything that was changed that could have caused this

[s car go]

I have not pulled the glow plugs to test individually, partly because the symptoms don't seem to point to a faulty plug and largely because it is much warmer to ask questions through my computer.

Thanks

You don't need to remove glow plugs to test, just use a volt meter.

1/Remove bus bar
2/Test battery voltage EG 12.4v
3/ Leave positive probe on the battery,and touch tip of plug with negative probe
4/ Voltage should match battery voltage!

If its lower or zero then the plug is on its way out or faulty.

I had a 80amp fuse fail on my Hi-ace van for no reason. It was amazing after I changed it, the van started

Regards

Mark

[BeratE]

I checked my plugs at work today and found two that had infinite resistance. I replaced all four plugs with some new ones when I got home from work (lots of fun in freezing temperatures in the dark). Unfortunately I found something that concerns me more. All of the plugs had wet oil on them. I had let the engine cool down for about an hour before swapping the plugs. Where in the world could this oil be coming from?

[charvell]

weeping injectors?

[BeratE]

I am fairly positive that it was engine oil rather than diesel, unfortunately. Plus I had my injectors reconditioned 2 years and only 7k miles ago

[GRASSMAN]

Cam cover gasket leaking?

Gman.

[BeratE]

The cam cover is indeed leaking, but this oil was inside, on the glow plug element. Also, the oil was equally covering all plugs, whereas my cover does not leak all around equally. If my cam cover vent were plugged, would the pressure somehow force oil onto the plugs? I just cant visualize how oil could get on the plugs in any way other than coming in the intake, which it is not doing.