hi, on doing a service on my 55 plate mj panda, i noticed 1 of the glow plugs has a" wobble" ! i can move it side to side. tried to tighten then loosen it, but no joy.( can see about 5 or 6 threads ) does not seem to leak any fuel or gasses..car starts & runs fine. how do i fix this. thank you.

Stripped thread..or sheared plug?

No warning light?

I would wager the top of the plug has sheared ofF.

Very common. The walls are is very thin under the hex

If it has the only way to replace it is to take the head off. Although you imply yours is still undoing If so it would be worth changing before it gets worse

If not I would I would leave it. I had an old Ford diesel years ago and only changed two glow plugs at a time.


I use to warm the engine up and loosen the glow plug a degree then let the engine cool down before undoing them any more. Your not supposed to undo them while hot as it can strip the head but there is less chance of the glow plug snapping. Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't.


Of cause if they are regularly changed they are less likely to a problem as is a little dab of High melting point grease on the threads

hi, thank you for the info. i can see whole plug inc threads turning.. the symbol did flash up on the dash for a few seconds then went off. prob because i disconnected the wires to glow plugs, fitted a test light from pos of battery to them, one at a time. the tester lit up. so looks like they are working. cant move car from driveway as its sorned,& not insured (also got a pug 107) yes, could be a head off job, tapped, helicoiled. but if its going to be a bit of a job. which i cant do. cheers. steve.

If it is not leaking.. and has done thousands of trouble free miles like this for you

On a 169.. not worth the hassle of removing head and fixing.

Could be £250/£400..at which point you could consider a new engine

Head removed .. might as well replace camchain..

A bit of a conundrum really..

hi, had the panda 3 years now. just the usual stuff done, new parts inc battery, sump, rear shocks, wishbones & of course sill welding,& other bits. but if its going to cost too much then i will buy another mj or maybe a 09 1108 eco ( £30 tax, again) scanning gumtree, ebay, marketplace at the mo. if i tax the mj i will prob run it until it packs up as i really like pandas. cheers m8. steve.

I had the glow plugs burn out on the a Rover 2.0 Prima diesel. It was the clattery early DI engine developed by Perkins but always started even with two plugs out of service. My glow plugs were not seized as they would rotate about 1 turn then stop dead. I think the working end of the glow plugs had mushroomed over.


As you say the only fix is to remove the cylinder head. At least on the Fiat MJ it gives you the opportunity to also replace the cam chain. They don't last for ever.

stevehebburn said:

or maybe a 09 1108 eco ( £30 tax, again)

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I'd suggest you look for an '09/10 1.2 dynamic eco instead; it's (slightly) more economical than the 1.1, and the extra torque makes for a much nicer drive, especially in city traffic. As a bonus, you'll get A/C and remote locking. They're both £30 RFL (at least for now). I'd avoid the last of the 1.2 Eleganzas; more expensive to tax & at that age, auto climate is more of a liability than an asset. I'd also steer clear of the very last of the 169's with the 69HP Euro 5 engine; these will self destruct if the cambelt gives way. On a 10yr old car, you need good basic design, not premium features.

My own '60 1.2 dynamic is coming up for 100k miles now, and basically has needed almost nothing beyond routine servicing. IMO it's the best of the Pandas -the later 69HP ones actually have less power & torque below 3500 rpm, where you need it most. It's Euro4, so for now at least, you can also use it in the London ULEZ without paying a daily surcharge.

hi, guys. thank you for the info. going to have a word with a m8 who runs a garage to see what he recommends regarding glow plug. i am looking on the web for a suitable panda,see what comes up, not to far from tyneside. cheers guys. steve.

hi, ok its been a while but got the mj to my m8,s garage. he says " glow plug is snapped in the head" now found when i start from cold,( 8am today) glow plug light flashes and go,s out when engine warms up.:bang: been told just to leave it alone, otherwise its a replacement cylinder head along with the cost to do it just thought id let you know. cheers guys. steve

Thanks for coming back with the update; not everyone bothers and it's much appreciated.

On a 15 yr old Panda, I'd just continue to use it until it finally breaks. A replacement cylinder head is only going to be worth doing if you can do it yourself and avoid labour charges, and even then I'm not sure it'd be worth it. You could do a lot of work and/or spend a lot of money only to have it fail an MOT a few months later for a terminally rusted rear beam or whatever.

Sometimes cars just wear out and/or age beyond economic repair.

To be fair it would not automatically scrap the cylinder head. But the head would have to be removed for it (and any others) to be drilled out. If doing that, you'd be daft to not do the cam chain, blah, blah.

stevehebburn said:

hi, ok its been a while but got the mj to my m8,s garage. he says " glow plug is snapped in the head" now found when i start from cold,( 8am today) glow plug light flashes and go,s out when engine warms up.:bang: been told just to leave it alone, otherwise its a replacement cylinder head along with the cost to do it just thought id let you know. cheers guys. steve

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there are places with the special tool to remove a snapped glow plug no need for new head or head removal, between 60 - 100 per plug depending on access, gbh in essex do it ring around to find one in your area.

As per your post in September :

You have 3 good plugs..and 1 sheared

If its sealed.. so motor works fine..

No concern.. just keep driving

hi, guys. thank you for the excellent advice. i am leaving the glow plug as is. i have replaced all the usual panda parts over the last 2 years ( like we all do ) rear beam & underbody are still really good. but cannot do the head. too much work for me, as im old school.(im 64) lol. still looking for replacement 2009/10 panda. after xmas.as got the wifes pug 107 to run around in.best regards, steve.

If it was more expensive car I'd say contact UK injector and glowplug removal Heard a lot of good praise about there work

ts not that hard to do

the kit £20-£30


there's a special drill. You drill out the top threads. If you look at the injector they are quite long. No swarf falls into the engine as its still held by the bottom half of the injector

you then pick out the remains of the thread and clean up the threads with a tap

drill and tap the bottom portion of the glow plug and vacuum clean any loose swarf


depending on the kit you attach a slid hammer and pull the bottom half out or attach an extractor and wind out the bottom half including all the remaining swarf

and viola job done


Some garages mig weld the tube closed then weld a nut onto the top. Then use an air hammer hitting down on the top while gently turning the nut. With the mechanical and thermal shock 95% of the time they do undo and if there is access its only a 5 minute job. However if it fails drilling with the kit becomes a problem.


personally I'd leave it alone two decent one are Good enough. Where the nut bit joins the body of the injector is a weak area thats susceptible to corrosion. I'd make sure the others are okay and put some High temp grease around this area so there isn't any further problems.

koalar said:

No swarf falls into the engine

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That's the theory; how well it works in practice is down to a combnation of luck and the skill of the person doing the work.

The gold standard is always remove the head, just to be sure. That said, I'll confess to having extracted a sheared spark plug from a Ford Kent engine with the head in-situ. I pushed a well greased cotton rag on a fine but strong wire into the hole in the plug body before I started, then used an easy out to extract the remains of the plug & rag together. I was pretty much certain nothing had fallen in, so decided to take the chance. Fortunately the car ran another 50k before I sold it, so on that occasion, the gamble paid off.

You could also put a borescope into the cylinder after the extraction, if you have one.

But as most folks are saying, one glow plug on a close to end of life diesel; I'd just let it be.

For minimal money, you can get fine cameras that attach to a smartphone, though field of view is unknown. A poly tube on a vacuum cleaner could extract anything found.

That all said. Back in my early days with bikes, a friend's carburettor butterfly lost some it's screws. Long story but they could only have gone into the engine. Despite it running fine, he fretted so much that he just "had to" take off the cylinder head. There was not a mark. Nothing.