hi,

i want to replace all 4 of the glow plugs on my td75. anybody ever done this? how much of the engine do i need to remove to gain access to them?

regards,
maniacbravo

It's a pain in the arse, there are a few things blocking access, on the TD100 it was the EGR and the oil vapour recirculation system, moving the fuel filter helped a little in doing this. Even once these are out the way, access is difficult, i would recommend a proper glowplug socket, either with a rubber grommet on the inside, or a normal long socket which is magnetised to hold the plug in place while you lower it down, you will also need and articulated extension because access is at an angle. Once you have access, there are still many hurdles to come, such as, making sure the bolts which hold the positive lead to the plug, don't disappear into the engine crevices once you unscrew it (a strong magnet on a flexible "wand" will help here), and when you come to put the new ones back in, making sure you don't cross the threads, is vitally important, and very difficult to feel, as passing your hand to do it manually is impossible for anyone that doesn't have 10 years olds pianists hands.
all that to say, if your car isn't having major trouble starting, and your glowplug light is not flashing after startup, then it's REALLY not worth doing.
hope this helps

Thanks for your reply Franglais, it seems to be a pretty irritating job, well the car starts fine most of the time, but the one time it was left outside overnight, it was like 10 celcius that night, it started after the 5th attempt and a huge cloud of smoke, and it will only get colder so thats why I want to change them.

I will also be re- sitting the top cover as its leaking some oil, just waiting to buy the gasket for it. will it be any easier without the top cover on?

regards,
maniacbravo

personally - the job is a PIA - So - I would slacken the tiny nuts on the connector leads to the top of the glow plugs..spray in some contact cleaner , then re-tighten,

poor connections can stop them glowing HOT enough to work properly

IF you have issues starting.. DON'T just keep cranking.

turn the ign. to MAR several times - to get heat into the glow plugs - THEN crank the starter..should fire 1st go then..!!,

Charlie

And use this:

Soo, an update on this thread in case anyone else is in the situation to replace the glow plugs, my issue was getting worse over time with 2 out of 4 glow plugs dead. The job is not an easy one but not impossible, took about two hours and two people (one of which is pretty experienced to do this)

First things first, remove the battery negative terminal, remove the fuel filter (makes things a bit easier) and remove the three 10mm nuts from the oil breather box (black box thing marked no 6 in the picture) and push the box where the fuel filter used to sit, no need to remove it completely. Then remove the nuts holding the bracket for the oil breather and this should give easy access to the first two glow plugs.

Removing the throttle cable gives somewhat ok access to the 4th glow plug.

The 3rd glow plug is the real problem but is doable with the right ratchet. The socket need to be deep enough to grab the glow plugs nut but the total height of the the socket and ratchet needs to clear the bracket sitting exactly on top of the third glow plug, it is not worth it to try to remove this bracket as this requires to remove the whole fuel pump assembly.

right bothersome job isn't it, glad you got it done alright.
on a side note, seems your rocker cover gasket has perished, it's dripping oil onto the coolant pipe, just above the very hot exhaust, not great.
Might want to look into that one, it's a cheap and easy fix thankfully, been there done that.

yep, rocker cover gasket was as hard as a rock, got it sorted along the glow plugs aswell, now everything can be clean again

This is how the engine bay looks today

Well if you've finished working under the bonnet, I suppose you need an excuse to open it up now and again! Looks very tidy (not sure about the airbox cover though..!)

lovely and clean, i like a clean engine bay i do! the colours wouldn't have been my first choice and i wouldn't have those abarth stickers, but top marks on the clean engine!

Well, I can assure you it looks much better in real life than in the picture, I already tried red and black for the engine cover and airbox and the colour coded ones looks the best so far (orange isn't really a great colour to match another colour to!). The front abarth sticker where the fan sticker used to be was replaced due to fan sticker being all torn up and looking really messy.

The last addition (about a month ago) is the abarth cap cover for the window washer bottle, I am still not sure about so I might remove it further down the road, the only reason I did it is that the original cap has a whole in it and is all cracked, for now, it looks better like this

Happy Birthday too ;-)

maniacbravo said:

Well, I can assure you it looks much better in real life than in the picture, I already tried red and black for the engine cover and airbox and the colour coded ones looks the best so far (orange isn't really a great colour to match another colour to!). The front abarth sticker where the fan sticker used to be was replaced due to fan sticker being all torn up and looking really messy.

The last addition (about a month ago) is the abarth cap cover for the window washer bottle, I am still not sure about so I might remove it further down the road, the only reason I did it is that the original cap has a whole in it and is all cracked, for now, it looks better like this

Click to expand...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...
If you like it, leave it, no mather what others say ( or think...).
Happy driving!