Glow Plugs

[Discoil]

The BX has been a poor starter for a few months now
My wife expects it to start immediately as the reminder glow plug light is intermittant, more off than on , and was a little so and so this morning.
Went for the easiest two , nos. 3 and 4.
Jump leads ready and away we go for testing.
No.3 not working ,ah I've seen some second hand ones somewhere to find that they are all Bosch and the ones taken out are Beru.
Dilemma here ,WHY did I save them .Found the 'mechanics hand book' ( I did work in a dealership ) and it gave the Beru part number and the Bosch part number .
Tested the 'found plugs' and put them in . Proper test in the morning..

[MULLEY]

I had a couple of glow plugs die last winter, my god, the car was an absolute nightmare to start when the freezing weather came, lots of cranking with pressing the throttle pedal on & off & by christ the amount of shit that came out of the exhaust when it finally fired up was amazing, the snow was jet black.

[nige]

they not that expensive are they? just get a set of new ones and be done with it or am i missing something here?

[citsncycles]

I tend to replace with new, but always avoid the cheapest option as I've known them fail after only a few months.

Mine always starts once the light has (eventually) gone out, but with planty of smoke and uneven running on the colder mornings, and even when warmed up if stopped for a few minutes needs the glowplugs again for starting from warm.

[Dollywobbler]

To be honest Mike, there's something not quite right with that BX other than the glow plugs. Putting brand new, good make ones in made little or no difference. My TXD is pretty good now I've put new ones in - it still misses a bit first thing but doesn't smoke. The Green Tiger is horrific and probably due another set.

[Discoil]

I used second hand ones because I had them in ' stock '.
I am a Yorkshireman and as such I will save wherever possible , and No, 3 and 4 glow plugs are easy to get at .
and the local car factors are about 5 miles away.
'We ' all keep some spares in case we need them at a later date used or otherwise

[KevR]

I'll quite happily fit used glow plugs if they test ok, and I usually only change the ones that are actually faulty - in fact I think I need to change one imminently as it's a bit lumpy on very cold starts. Simplest test is to disconnect the supply to all four, then use a test bulb between battery + and glow plug + connection. If it lights up, it's probably ok, if it doesn't it's dead.

If it's still a bad starter with new glow plugs, check the cold start mechanism is working. Two things tend to go wrong in my experience: 1: the wax-stat thingy on the thermostat housing fails, and 2: either the cold start on the pump is badly adjusted, or it's seized to the shaft and moves along with the anti-stall leverso they can't move independently. This is for Lucas pumps, don't know about the Bosch ones.

[citsncycles]

Yep, mine's been locked off as it doesn't operate properly. I have another to try but haven't got round to doing it yet - hopefully on of this weeks jobs!