Lancelot

Right after engine start my pre-glow indicator light comes back on for about a minute. Someone told me this indicates at least one glowplug is getting bad and needs to be replaced. However it's getting colder overhere and the engine still fires without a hickup. The car needs a large service in less than 2500km's so is it ok to wait until then, just as long as I don't get bad startups?

uberwgn

Lance, have it taken care of when the car goes in for its next service. Driving/operating with a weak glow plug is not a major concern unless you have cold starting issues.

Take care.

EdzBenz

+1

Lancelot

Damn, the car is having really bad (cold) startups already! Maybe with a 6 cylinder you won't notice a lot, but with my 4 cylinder the engine is clattering really bad for about 10 seconds and puts out blue smoke due to the unburned diesel fuel from one of the cylinders. I'm planning on replacing the glowplugs myself during the weekend. I need to remove the inlet manifold to get to them so I'll need 4 glowplugs and an inlet manifold gasket, right?!

EdzBenz

Lance,
Sorry, I didn't realize which engine you had. You do need an intake manifold gasket. The 6 cylinders really don't have much of a problem with only one glow plug that doesn't function. The 4 cylinder model must be much worse. The process to change the glow plugs takes at least a day. Here's a link to the instructions I used to change my plugs. I don't know if its different for a 4 cylinder model. Let us know how it goes: http://www.mercedesshop.com/Wikka/OM606962GlowPlug
I would also suggest renting a glow plug reaming tool. This is used after you take out the old plugs, and before you put the new ones in.
Good luck

Lancelot

I don't think it's gonna be a days work with my engine. (OM604.912) There's no turbo and the intake manifold is made of plastic. I can already see the first glowplug connector (circled in red) From the looks of it I need to loosen the 4 hoseclamps so I can remove the large horizontal tube. Then I can remove the plastic valvecover-cover, just to get easier access to the inlet manifold bolts. Once it's off I can get to the glowplugs... Can you elaborate EdzBenz from what you see in the pics?

EdzBenz

It looks like the job will be easier since you do not have a turbo. I would have to say that your observations to get access to the glowplugs is correct. Follow your observations. Although, I have never done this on your engine, and that is the first time I have ever seen a photo of that model. On the OM606 with a turbo, you have to get underneath of the car and disconnect the intake manifold from the intercooler. This is a pain in the neck, and is a cause of a lot of the time neededed to change my plugs. Here's some tips:
-Those plastic connectors on top of your glow plugs are delicate. Use needle nose pliers to take them off, but be gentle.
-Be careful not to break a plug off inside the engine. The glow plugs are notorious for cracking under pressure from a wrench. Do not try and use brute force to take a stuck plug out. Instead, use some liquid wrench and ease the plug clock-wise (1/8 turn) and then counter-clockwise to back out.
-Lastly, use a glow plug reamer tool. This will clean the shaft where the new plugs go into. It will help prevent your plugs from being stuck when you need to change them again. Good luck

Lancelot

Project finished! Took me slightly over two hours to complete. The stone cold engine purrs like a kitten now when started, and preglow time is also noticeably shorter.
Here's the engine with the inlet ports cleaned up and 4 new glowplugs in place:


These are the old plugs, 3 Bosch and 1 Beru so cylinder#2 had already been replaced. I don't feel like doing this evey year so I purchased 4 original Beru glowplugs at the stealer. btw I don't have a intake manifold gasket, there are 8 o-rings that have been replaced also ofcourse...


I made a pictorial, is it worth it to upload it somewhere?!

EdzBenz

Post it up if you want. Someone with your engine may need to do this in the future. Good to hear that everything went smooth.

Big J

my cousin has a 87 300td and the problem he has is after a long drive he needs to rest the car for an hour before it start again. It would start but not run, it seem it's not the glow plug as he no problem with morning start. i used to have a diesel too before but and have some glow plug problem but not like this.

sanjoy

Sorry to thread hijack.

My 6 cylinder 320 CDI was having terrible cold start problems and taking several prolonged attmepts to start even though the glow plug lamp was going off fairly quickly.

Oddly this has cured itself and it is now colder..

800 miles till next service and I am sure they were all replaced by the prev owner last year.

michakaveli

Lancelot, looks like things went well! Nice work!

RobertG

Good for you for being able to fix your vehicle and keeping some money in your pocket, as far as the comment that you made about the unburned fuel's color of the smoke is incorrect.
Unburned diesel fuel coming out of your exhaust will show up as white or gray smoke, the reason that you see blue smoke is because the oil is burning due to cold temperatures(thermal expansion is slower) and cylinder walls being washed by the fuel that is not burning due to the compression temperature being not high enough to ignite the fuel at the time of the injection.

Thanks for sharing the information and the photos with us, I'm sure that your info will help others in the future .

Lancelot

Ok then, maybe some other european E220D drivers might pop by here. Should I post the pictorial here in the W210 forum? I'm guessing it might be the same procedure for the E300 non-turbo diesel, just two cylinders more...

michakaveli

Sure...

Franasia

Lancelot,

I wish I could get a car like yours. That E 220D engine rocks!

Cheers