A neighbour has a V reg 3 series Diesel that is not a good starter when cold. I offered to help by quickly checking the glowplugs for continuity. After removing the 'decorative' cover over the engine it appears that considerable dismantling is called for before we can get anywhere near the glowplugs.
Am I missing something simple or is this a job for a dealer?
Ian Phillips
How cold is cold?
The BMW 4 & 6 cylinders are unusual for a DI in that they use their glow plugs to start from cold but only breifly unlike most new DI's which will only fire up the plugs at ~3 degrees and below. - cos they dont use a hugely high CR...
Anyways, you can test them in situ- just. Disconnect the wiring and use a continuity tester between power and earth.
Tim..
Cold in this case is less than about 4C
I know I measure the plug resistances without removing them, problem is in this car is that it is not possible to even get anywhere near the wiring without removing manifolds, piping, wiring, brackets etc etc.
Ian
continuity.
Mine's in at the dealer having this checked as we speak. I suspected that they'd not checked it properly last time round - not really surprising if its as much work as it appears.
My symptoms are huge clouds of smoke on cold start-up and running on 4 or 5 cylinders for 5 seconds.
On my Xantia 1.9 TD, admittadly not a new modern DI engine, the glowplug light comes on for 15 seconds, but the glowplugs themselves will often be on for another 3 minutes after the light goes out.
Just because the glowplug light isn't on doesn't mean that the glowplugs are not glowing. On most new DI engines the glow plugs glow even when it is quite warm so that the engine gets up to temperature quickly and has clean emissions whilst warming up.
-- James
continuity.
Mine's turned out to be the exhaust gas recirculation valve, apparently. Didn't show up in the diagnostics, so it took a while to chase down.
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