GLOW PLUG REPLACE

Its a pain in the ass, but do-able. First pull the bus bar (long strip of copper with sections of insulation on it) that is attached to the glowplugs with 6 or 8mm hex nuts. Careful not to lose the nuts, or the washers that go with them. From there its pretty straightforward remove and replace the glowplugs. I do not know the torque spec, however. I do know (thankfully not through experience) that stripping the glow plugs holes is not fun.

Note: this is for IDI VW diesel engines, not TDi (procedure may be similar, but I've never done it)

If it's a tdi the wires are just plugged into the glow plugs. And they're much easier to get to then on the idi engines.

JoBo

What Johann Koenig said and................ I recommend that you also take off the fuel lines to the injectors. That should give you a lot more room and make the job go faster. I also recommend Gear Wrenches or similar.

sells them IIRC and you could just buy 8mm and 12mm since I think those are the sizes needed for the glow plugs. This first time I used these wrenches on a job like yours...........it went very fast and easy!! Of course don't drop anything or break/strip anything. Magnets that can reach down into little crevices are nice to use too.

You will need to bleed the fuel lines after you finish too! ;-)

JMHO later, dave (One out of many daves)

It can be a pain the first time but there is a trick to making it easier to put back together and make it really easy the next time.

The glow plugs are under the strip of thick copper (bus bar) which runs along the front of the engine under the fuel lines and below the injectors. As has been mentioned, removing the fuel lines for this job is convenient. Once you get those four tiny nuts and washers off (a little magnet on the end of a rod is *extremely* helpful), the bus bar comes off out of your way and you can remove the plugs with a larger wrench.

Inspect the old plugs and note which cylinder each one came from. If any are burned away irregularly (significant missing material), you have a bad injector on that cylinder that should be replaced.

Here's the trick. Once you have the bus bar out of there, use a dremel or other tool to make the four holes into slots, open to the bottom. Now loosely install the washers and tiny nuts on the new plugs, then install them in the engine.

Here's the cool part. Slide the bus bar slots down over the plugs, taking care that the washers stay on the outer side. Tighten the little nuts and you're done! And next time you do plugs, you just loosen the little nuts a bit, and the bus bar lifts right up through the slots.

I can't take credit for the idea though, I think it was somebody on this group that came up with it first.

When installing the glow plugs, screw them in by hand as far as you can to make sure you don't cross-thread them. Then tighten them a little (maybe 1/8th turn, don't strip them!) with a wrench.

The wrench advice is good!

I was told to get such wrenches and it make getting the bus-bar nuts on and off...particularly behind the injector pump...almost easy!

A pain in the a** job, but not all that tough with right tools.

Tony Bad

--------------

02 Jetta Wagon 01 Eurovan MV 91 Jetta 1.6 Diesel 86 Jetta 79 Rabbit 1.5 Diesel (semi-retired for now) Schwinn Continental 10 Speed Radio Flyer Pedal Car (my daughter made me add this)

I just printed out this advice...very good trick with slotting bus bar. VERY good trick!!

Thanks for passing it on.

Hey thanks a lot for all the advice but I think my car is just slightly different from the replies. I found the glow plugs and they are just bellow the injectors as I was told but they are covered only by a rubber hose that is connected to the wiring in another higher location. The four plugs are just exposed and there is no copper block. The problem is that I can't get a rotation angle with the 10mm wrench. Additionally it seems like my fuel pump is in the way because I can't even reach the two plugs that are behind the pump. Is this a job that will require my pulling of the fuel pump??? I am not sure if people still keep up with this old post so I am going to re post this under a TDI 2002 Category.

LOL! You have a 2002 TDI and already need glowplugs?