The glow plug light on my Panda's dashboard has recently come on (blinking for 15 seconds after engine start). Although I am not totally incompetent (car mechanics wise, that is), after reading some horror stories on this forum, I don't feel confident enough to attempt the replacement myself.

I have just been quoted £300 by Arnold Clark for the job (replacement of all 4 glow plugs), but feel this is a bit excessive.


I was wondering if anyone here would be kind enough to recommend a garage in Birmingham capable of competently doing this job for (much) less?

novovimz said:

I have just been quoted £300 by Arnold Clark for the job (replacement of all 4 glow plugs), but feel this is a bit excessive.

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Yes, that's a lot of money for a glow plug change.

A set of 4 Genuine OEM FIAT packaged glow plugs will set you back over £100, but you can buy a set of NGK's on ebay for under £40.

I bought a set of NGK's on ebay a couple of years ago for about £35. They are one of the easiest jobs you can do on the engine as all four are exposed as soon as the airfilter is taken off. I used an 8mm box spanner, a long series 1/4 drive socket would probably do. I did the job with a warm engine to make unscrewing them easier, although if you are worried, you could also give them a squirt of WD40 and leave it for 1/2 hour to soak in. I put a tiny bit of copper grease on the threads and on the end of the nickel plated body at the point where the black tip comes out. It is important to keep to the torque settings of 7.65 to 9.35 Newton metres (6 - 7 ft lbs). If you don't notice any difficulty starting then it is probable that only one glowplug has failed and there is no great urgency to replace them.

I forgot to mention, the NGK box has 5285 YE06 part number. I replaced the set but it was not essential, with a multimeter on the lowest ohms scale it will be obvious which have higher resistance and are faulty

novovimz said:

I have just been quoted £300 by Arnold Clark for the job (replacement of all 4 glow plugs), but feel this is a bit excessive.

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Who gave you this quote, if this garage had any clue what they were doing they would of referred to Fiat Tempario or at least Autodata first, from memory its under a half hour job. The glow plugs sit right at the front of the engine and no parts have to be removed first.

If what you say is true then this is disgraceful and it's no wonder dealers are struggling. I am pro-dealership for many reasons but this just f*cks me right off and destroys the faith that good dealerships spend so long and hard installing in customers.

Iv'e just looked a little deeper into multijet glowplug requirements and it seems that the 70 hp engines have the 8mm plugs and the 75 hp engines have the 9mm plugs. Fortunately you can check without taking anything to bits. The far right glowplug (drivers side) is easy to see, about three inches upper right of the yellow oil filler cap (seen from in front of the car). Pull off the glowplug power lead and the size of the hexagon can be checked. I think most of the Pandas are the 70 hp type, 169 FIAT type.

A bit more delving into part numbers gives Y 800 3 J as the 8mm plug for the 70 hp panda. the dimensions are on the ebay 171160036795 and this matches the old plug from my car.

tinmar49:
Thank you very much for this information. My Panda is indeed 70 bhp and it does have 8 mm plugs. I know the location of the plugs, although I have never tried to replace them myself. According to some experienced mechanics (and some posts on this forum) removing plugs is not a trivial job and it can go horribly wrong, that's why I am a bit hesitant to do them myself, but if I cannot find a better deal I will probably give it a go.


At the moment I don't have any difficulties starting the engine, which might suggest than only one plug has gone, but it is likely that the others are not that far behind and I would like to do all 4 of them at the same time.


Your experience is very encouraging and I will buy a set of NGK plugs from your recommended link and try to do them in the near future. I will start priming them with an occasional spray of gasplus. Any recommendation on the torque level after which I should leave them alone if they are not shifting? I would be grateful if the knowledgeable people of this forum could give me some tricks and tips about the glow plug replacement on Panda 1.3 multijet.


TI4086:
The figure of £300 was quoted to me over the phone by Arnold Clark in Birmingham.

Ive not read anywhere about any retorquing, I have not touched mine since fitting. I suppose it would possible to damage the threads, but given the length it will be impossible to crossthread them. All the gas sealing is done at the front taper well away from the thread. When I took mine out I just cleaned off any loose debris that might fall down the hole and they unscrewed easily. Any thread easing oil used will be added peace of mind and a warm engine will help. I wish all jobs on the engine were as easy.

novovimz said:

The figure of £300 was quoted to me over the phone by Arnold Clark in Birmingham.

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No surprise there then. I normally use a deep 8mm socket and a 1/4 drive socket with short extension. There is a T bar tool but with the 1/4 ratchet you don't get too much leverage so unlikely to break the plug if it was seized. To be honest modern glow plugs and head castings mean less chance of a glow plug breaking.

It is a really easy job and access is no issue at all (unlike the 1.9JTD engine) and even if a local garage did it for you and broke a plug the whole job would still probably be less than £300!

It is completely your choice but I would give it a go, if the glow plug snaps it will be above the threaded part.....try doing a set of Ford spark plugs on the old CVH engines, they snap nearly every time:bang:

p.s. the glow plug light flashes initially on both my 1.9 doblos, have been for 3 years!

T14086 said:

No surprise there then. I normally use a deep 8mm socket and a 1/4 drive socket with short extension. There is a T bar tool but with the 1/4 ratchet you don't get too much leverage so unlikely to break the plug if it was seized. To be honest modern glow plugs and head castings mean less chance of a glow plug breaking.

It is a really easy job and access is no issue at all (unlike the 1.9JTD engine) and even if a local garage did it for you and broke a plug the whole job would still probably be less than £300!

It is completely your choice but I would give it a go, if the glow plug snaps it will be above the threaded part.....try doing a set of Ford spark plugs on the old ohv engines, they snap nearly every time:bang:

p.s. the glow plug light flashes initially on both my 1.9 doblos, have been for 3 years!

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i had these down to a tee with a mig welder andsome box section
never had to take a head off never

anyway this fiat
thing is if they do snap and like all glow plugs they can and often do then i can see that garage quote is excessive because they dont want the job
i woudnt want it either i would want say a full service as well just in case it does go pear

I also wondered about the likelihood of snapping off between the hex and the thread so I filed a section out of one of my old ones. They are Beru, German made. I don't think snapping off this design of glowplug is very likely. I'm sorry about the size of the attachment.

Thanks folks..

Most of who are no longer forum regulars..
: (

Answered most of my issues raised in the tech talk section.

I never had any great luck using argonaut 's excellent guide on jtd plug diagnosis.

And recall just how awkward those plugs were.