General Fiat 500 multijet 95 bhp. Potential Glow plug problem.

[picasso55]

Hi Everyone,

Getting “Check glow plugs’ warning message appearing recently. Have had some cold morning recently! The car is my wife’s 2015 fiat 500 95 bhp Multijet. Brief history, purchased with approx 4.5K miles. Has been used mainly for commuting on a 70 mile round trip x 5 days /week. Currently 3 days/week. So no real history of short stop/start trips. The car has been an excellent work horse with regular in-house services ie oil / oil-filter/air filter etc. It has done approx 117000 miles, so can’t complain!
My wife plans to retire in the next couple of months and the plan is to then sell the car as it will not be suited to future short inner city driving.
I was intending to do a little investigatory diagnostics myself with my simple multimeter and was watching a video on Utube where the guy was able to test the voltages/resistance of the glow plugs via accessing a plug/socket, (I assume a glow plug connection box). He was working on a Fiat Doblo with the same multijet engine!
I cant for the life of me find the box/connection socket in question on the 500! In the video the guy seemed to have easy access to the connection in question and it appeared to be at the side of the battery box! I think? . I can’t find it!
Any help advice would be much appreciated. I don’t intend to change any potential faulty glow plugs myself due to access and potential breaking. But being able to test them my self would allow some light on the way forward as not wanting to face a huge garage bill in light of possible “soon to sell” scenario.
Thank you in advance!

 

[Ralf S.]

The glow plugs are kind of mutant spark plugs, so the top of the plug and the hex would give you a circuit through the plug... but they're a tenner each, so just swapping them is a lot less faff. Nobody replaces just one or two plugs, when the others are the same age and likely just about to die as well.

Except the guy who owned my Stilo. He swapped them as they failed, judging by the three different brands.

Just buy new Bosch ones and you're cool for the rest of the life of the car..


Ralf S.

 

[steveras57]

You say you got the car at 4.5k and its now at 117k from what you say i assume it has never had new glow plugs in all that mileage!? that being the case they are WELL overdue! so i agree with RALF rather than sodding around trying to diagnose the old ones just by a new set they are no more difficult than a set of spark plugs to change so considering how little they cost just change em mate!
I also agree with "buy Bosch ones" you can probably get cheaper! but you should go with known quality and just do the job once!

 

[picasso55]

You say you got the car at 4.5k and its now at 117k from what you say i assume it has never had new glow plugs in all that mileage!? that being the case they are WELL overdue! so i agree with RALF rather than sodding around trying to diagnose the old ones just by a new set they are no more difficult than a set of spark plugs to change so considering how little they cost just change em mate!
I also agree with "buy Bosch ones" you can probably get cheaper! but you should go with known quality and just do the job once!

I agree all are due replacement. If it were as straight forward as changing plugs I would do it myself. Although on 500’s most routine jobs can turn into a nightmare. eg oil filter on my Abarth, fog light bulb replacement, again on my abarth, you have to remove the front bumper .
I’ve queried the 500 glow plug problem with 2 garages. Both want to first carry out diagnostic checks @ £50-55 a shot. Both garages stating if a glow plug appeared "stuck" ie corroded, they would not proceed with the job!
Hence my reluctance to attempt my self. Recently the car has been a constant money pit. It was my intention to carry out my own "diagnostics".
I cleaned up the engine bay yesterday, checked the obvious, ie loose plug connections etc, topped oil. Had wanted to check glow plug resistances etc but could not find the relay connection box!
I did follow the cables from the glow plugs to what looked like a box below the battery shelf with no immediate access! Thanks Fiat!
Again, can anyone confirm the location of the connection box?

 

[picasso55]

I agree all are due replacement. If it were as straight forward as changing plugs I would do it myself. Although on 500’s most routine jobs can turn into a nightmare. eg oil filter on my Abarth, fog light bulb replacement, again on my abarth, you have to remove the front bumper .
I’ve queried the 500 glow plug problem with 2 garages. Both want to first carry out diagnostic checks @ £50-55 a shot. Both garages stating if a glow plug appeared "stuck" ie corroded, they would not proceed with the job!
Hence my reluctance to attempt my self. Recently the car has been a constant money pit. It was my intention to carry out my own "diagnostics".
I cleaned up the engine bay yesterday, checked the obvious, ie loose plug connections etc, topped oil. Had wanted to check glow plug resistances etc but could not find the relay connection box!
I did follow the cables from the glow plugs to what looked like a box below the battery shelf with no immediate access! Thanks Fiat!
Again, can anyone confirm the location of the connection box?

Should I place this query into the Technical forum?

 

[steveras57]

I agree all are due replacement. If it were as straight forward as changing plugs I would do it myself. Although on 500’s most routine jobs can turn into a nightmare. eg oil filter on my Abarth, fog light bulb replacement, again on my abarth, you have to remove the front bumper .
I’ve queried the 500 glow plug problem with 2 garages. Both want to first carry out diagnostic checks @ £50-55 a shot. Both garages stating if a glow plug appeared "stuck" ie corroded, they would not proceed with the job!
Hence my reluctance to attempt my self. Recently the car has been a constant money pit. It was my intention to carry out my own "diagnostics".
I cleaned up the engine bay yesterday, checked the obvious, ie loose plug connections etc, topped oil. Had wanted to check glow plug resistances etc but could not find the relay connection box!
I did follow the cables from the glow plugs to what looked like a box below the battery shelf with no immediate access! Thanks Fiat!
Again, can anyone confirm the location of the connection box?

I agree all are due replacement. If it were as straight forward as changing plugs I would do it myself. Although on 500’s most routine jobs can turn into a nightmare. eg oil filter on my Abarth, fog light bulb replacement, again on my abarth, you have to remove the front bumper .
I’ve queried the 500 glow plug problem with 2 garages. Both want to first carry out diagnostic checks @ £50-55 a shot. Both garages stating if a glow plug appeared "stuck" ie corroded, they would not proceed with the job!
Hence my reluctance to attempt my self. Recently the car has been a constant money pit. It was my intention to carry out my own "diagnostics".
I cleaned up the engine bay yesterday, checked the obvious, ie loose plug connections etc, topped oil. Had wanted to check glow plug resistances etc but could not find the relay connection box!
I did follow the cables from the glow plugs to what looked like a box below the battery shelf with no immediate access! Thanks Fiat!
Again, can anyone confirm the location of the connection box?

=]

 

[picasso55]

Car started fine this morning. Glow plug dash light came on momentarily, diminished. Car started ok.

 

[steveras57]

=]

Hi again sorry but i cant find any information for the diesel its NOT in the Haynes manual that covers these models and i cant find anything online either its all about the 1.2 petrol as near as i can tell!.
Having looked at it closer i now understand your reluctance to change the glow plugs yourself ! not difficult in itself but i now realise you have to take the turbo charger off to get access. unless you are a very competent home mechanic with proper facilitys probably best not to attempt yourself! .
Therefore unless a more knowledgeable 500 diesel owner can give the location of the relay box(assuming it exists!?) so you can do the checks you want to do to see if the car is worth repairing!( i would estimate for a small garage charging £85 per hour plus VAT the cost would be between £300-£500 for the work!). then it might be time to sell the car and get a newer better replacement, to get best value for your money!

 

[picasso55]

Thanks for your prompt response! Very much appreciated! It is a bit of a dilemma at the moment. The glow plugs are so deep in the engine!
You just saved me £30 ? I was just looking at the Haynes manuals myself. I’m still waiting for the garages to get back with quotes for possible work. I can get the plugs, NGK, for approx £40 which I thought was very reasonable.
We need the car for at least 4 months.

 

[steveras57]

The 70miles the car has been doing regularly are they motorway miles or a roads stop start? asking cause the 1.3 diesel is fairly low reving even at motorway speeds! so i am wondering if its not been run up to the highger rev bands very much the glow plugs might be a bit" sooty" and if an" Italian tune up!" might help!( take it out for alongish run and rev it up high and hold it there so engine has a chance to "breath" a bit and flow a lot of gas at higher revs!.
The other question that springs to mind is has the car gone through its normal "D P F " regenerating sequence properly as if not that might also be "sooting "up! with the associated problems? any change oil or oil contaminated messages coming up?
I see you HAVE to keep the car for a while longer that being the case if you cant solve the issue then id would continue to run it but drive the pants off it as it MIGHT help clear the system and if not and it breaks something then at least you will know where the problem is! if the car still drives fine but you keep getting the warning then best to sell it on with an honest description of a know fault! so the new buyer knows what to expect!

 

[picasso55]

As I mentioned in my original post, the car is used by my wife to commute 70 mile/day, 5 days/week, return journey from Coventry to Worcester. Mostly motorway. Majority of the 100K miles has been travelled this way. I have religiously carried out routine oil changes etc and maintained the car via reputable local garage for other work. The last 18 months the commute has been 3 days/week. So shorter journeys on days off have probably increased recently.
Must admit, I don’t think my wife has ever driven the car @ high revs, even on the motorway . So an "Italian tune up" is probably a good idea!
With the recent "check glow plug message" the car still started, altho sounded/felt like a petrol engine on three cylinders for a short period of time.
Following my investigations yesterday the car seemed fine! No problems this morning! For 117K miles it runs well!
Obviously the glow plugs do need replacing! Perhaps we will get through the next 4 months without further probs? .

 

[picasso55]

Totally agree with your last post! Again thank you for your advice!

 

[steveras57]

Totally agree with your last post! Again thank you for your advice!

your welcome hope things pan out well for you!

 

[John202020]

If it's like the petrol, have you checked replaced the earth strap?
How old is the battery?
There's a suggestion turn on ignition wait for the glow plugs to heat, turn off and on again, wait then crank over?

 

[picasso55]

Update:
Plugged in my Autel AP200 Scanner. Produced a P0673 Fault code, "Glow plug 3, intermittent, 1"
The car is currently running OK.
Will monitor & hopefully get to June for planned sale.