Citroen Picasso Glow Plugs

At three years old they should be fairly easy to remove, if they don't want to come out try getting the engine hot first.

appriciated.

Thanks for the tip. Is three years/60K early for them to fail?

No. Most makers recommend to change them every 20k or so. Personally I leave them till they fail, then change the faulty ones only.

mrcheerful

Glow-plugs may in theory suffer from more subtle faults, but in 15+ years experience of 3 Peugeot diesels cold-starting problems have always been when the second of the 4 became open-circuit (i.e. not noticeable while 3 were still functional/).

As the 'cold' resistance of a glow-plug is only about 3/4 ohm, you're unlikely to have anything to measure the resistance of four in parallel,

I've always had them replaced in sets once enough fail to cause hard cold-weather starting. But I'll take your advice, and replace any accessible failed plugs individually in future.

Do you recommend putting anything on the threads to make subsequent removal easier?

John

You should try and pull a glow plug on an L series diesel as fitted to 200s and 25s. One plug is nicely tucked behind the Bosch fuel pump unit.

To be honest, never had to change a glowplug due to failure. I have had to take out the weak part in the circuit, the glow plug relay, and carefully clean the contact surfaces with a sliver of paper as they had become sooted with normal useage. For some reason, usually cost grounds, the relay is often the lowest rating the can get away with.

Rdgs

PDH

The message from John Henderson contains these words:

I've always used a smear of copper grease and never had any so treated get stuck. Which is more than can be said for the one's I've taken out prior to greasing 'em.

The message from "Paul Hubbard" contains these words:

Same with the Prima.

try changing them on a 6 cylinder Volvo/Volkswagen, they are seriously hard work.

mrcheerful

One gets the impression that the difficulty of the job is deliberately proprortional to the sum of money required to actually do the work.

Somewhere, in a back room, a group of designers have the sole task of puttng stuff in the most awkward positions possible with the sole intention of driving the bill up.

B&$#"*ds :o(

PDH

think yourself lucky fords new fiesta diesel 1.4 you had to take the cam off and high pressure fuel pump for 1 glowplug also c3 diesel

Like the Astra thermostat hidden behind the cambelt backplate IIRC.....

Or alternators on a Wolseley 2300 land crab.....

Ditto for the plug on a L series woofer engine. They say you can fiddle the plug out under most circumstances but if it is well wedged in a strip and long socket are the only options.

PDH

Amazing how the mental scars linger, so long after the physical ones disappear.

I changed a clutch on an Austin princess once, the bonnet slammed itself on my left hand along the wing side, the bonnet locked itself and I was stuck, I managed to pry the bonnet edge up with my right hand and miraculously my left was ok, a bit bruised but nothing bad, I couldn't believe it, I also couldn't believe how difficult it was to do the clutch on it.

mrcheerful

The message from Chris Street contains these words:

Cor - I saw a Morris 1800 of the same shape on Wednesday in the car park at Cardingmill Valley. Inhabitant was painting the scenery from the driver's seat.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Guy King saying something like:

That's an impressive reach.

The message from Grimly Curmudgeon contains these words:

Well, he had the window open and the sheep were queueing up to be festive pink. Unlike the one at the head of the valley which was queueing up at the pearly gates trying to explain to St Peter that it was sorry it was early but that the water was deeper than it thought.

Thanks for all your help so far. Finally got under the bonnet this morning, & all 4 glow plugs are open circuit! The preheat control box seems to be OK, it applies 12V to the plugs for about 10 seconds if the ignition is turned on & no attempt is made to start. The post heat seems a bit long though, they say on for almost 2 minuets after starting, the haynes BOL's say they should stay on for a least 15 seconds after starting to improve fuel combustion etc & as it was below freezing this may be correct. Looks a bit of a fiddly job to get at them all. so I might get the garage to do it. Is it rare for all 4 plugs to go at 60K/3.5 yrs?

Thanks again

Dave

BTW, what would the standard labour time be at a garage?