ANy advice on glow plugs...how long should they last? What causes them to lose heat to ignotet he diesel? Would my car which ahs room for two batteries need two in order to get the car to perform better? Help...please...
I am no expert on glow plugs, but the way i understand it when you turn on the ignition you get so many seconds of heat until the glow lamp goes out, and then you get a duty cycle on/off of heating after that.
As glow plugs begin to fail one at a time, you can still start the engine with a progressively smaller number of pistons firing. Then one day you need to change them all.
I have had the experience of being able to start
Woops accidental press of the send button.
I am no expert on glow plugs, but the way i understand it when you turn on the ignition you get so many seconds of heat until the glow lamp goes out, and then you get a duty cycle on/off of heating after that until the engine warms up.
With use, as glow plugs begin to fail one at a time, you can still start the engine with a progressively smaller number of pistons firing. Then one day you need to change them all.
I have had the experience of being able to start my machine only later on in the day. It turned out to be a burnt out connector in the wiring to the glow plugs. re-terminated that and it was ok again.
I imagine if the battery has enough oomph to turn the motor ok then one would be enough. Having said that, it would depend on the size of your engine. Once it is running, the capacity of the battery (or number of,) will have no bearing on the performance of your engine, for it depends on compression and heat for ignition, and not the glow plugs.
The biggest job the battery does is start the car and warm the glow plugs. In colder climates, the glow plugs have to be on longer, thereby causing a bigger drain on the battery. I imagine the reason your car has room for 2 batteries would be to accomodate them if you lived in Alaska or Siberia. In the warmer climate of, say Florida, 1 battery is good enough.
CD
Forgot to add that in colder climates the battery also works much harder starting the car because the motor oil is thick, so the battery has to throw all its current at the starter motor for a longer time to get the engine to turn over and start.
CD
I'm not sure what the designed-for life of glow plugs is, but anecdotally, the ones that came with my '79 Diesel VW were still working when I got rid of the car 11 years and 115,000 miles later.
Your (as yet unspecified) car might need two batteries. It takes much more energy to start a diesel because of the extremely high compression and the fact it has to be turned over at a relatively high rpm to make it start. If you are having a hard time starting it, first check how much current the starter is drawing when it is cranking the car. If the starter is in spec, get the second battery. If the starter is drawing too much current, it should be replaced.
The battery has nothing to do with car performance. It is only used to start the car. Once the engine is running all the electrical devices are powered by the alternator.
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