Hi.
Now that the cold weather as arrived,my van gives of a lot of white smoke on start up.It coughs and splutters a bit but when the engine warms up it runs smooth and no smoke. I changed the glow plugs all but one which is seized in and I'm worried I might break it. Could this one plug be the cause of smoke? The oil and water seem fine no contamination.
Any advice would be welcome.The van is a 1.9td
Thanks

the smoke you see is unburnt fuel - becaue on start-up it's only running on 3 cylinders,

personally I would get in the habit of letting it idle for 15/20 secondes then increase the revs - the additional revs will get the "cold" cylinder firing quickly.

as you said there is a fair chance of a HUGE bill if the "stuck" glow-plug snaps off,
Charlie

The stuck heater plug, can you remove the wiring and test it for continuity with a test meter? You would know then if it is heating up or not.
How about repeated application of some release agent to it when the engine is nice and hot, have you tried that to help un-stick it?

lancepar said:

The stuck heater plug, can you remove the wiring and test it for continuity with a test meter? You would know then if it is heating up or not.
How about repeated application of some release agent to it when the engine is nice and hot, have you tried that to help un-stick it?

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Hi,
electrical testing is a bit "Hit+miss" with glow plugs ,
I wouldn't put much faith in that,
I prefer the ACID-test of connecting it to a battery and watching it glow..,
but as I said I wouldn't risk catastrophic damage to the head by stuffing -up the glow-plug threads,
Charlie

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I think I will leave it for the time being, I'll maybe have another go at undoing it in new year. It doesn't seem to be doing any real harm. So thanks again for the posts.

Acapulco gold said:

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I think I will leave it for the time being, I'll maybe have another go at undoing it in new year. It doesn't seem to be doing any real harm. So thanks again for the posts.

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buy some "plus-gas" from a good car spares centre and give the threads a regular soaking , HOT + cold,
after a few weeks of this it should come out easily,
Charlie