glow plugs in 1977-240D

Jan 30, 2006 4 Replies

I have had an ongoing problem with glow plugs burning up.....I replace them and within a couple of months at least 2 have burned out .......these plugs show signs of overheating......can anyone help?



I had this issue in my '82 240D, I replaced the glowplug relay and it never happened again.

Also... the glow plugs are dirt cheap on ebay... like $25 a set of 4... look for it.

You might find rebuilt relay too there...

My 1976 240D showed similar problems, along with a slow pre-heat time.

My local repairman replaced the glow plug system with those from the VW diesel glow plugs, available as an add-on kit. Has worked beautifully for years now - and do I appreciate that 10 second warm up!

Elliott Moore

As Mitchell pointed out, this can be a problem with the glow plug relay and/or circuit that controls the glow plugs. The glow plugs are supposed to shut off a short period after the engine is running. If a bad relay is keeping them on all the time, they will burn out quickly.

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