Technical Fluid in glow plug hole

[Exwind]

Hello Folks
My daughter has an 09 1.3 multijet 500 and her boyfriend managed to change 3 glow plugs b ut unfortunately snapped the 4th at the collar just above the threads,after improvising a slide hammer i managed to get the top off the glow plug leaving the electrode and remains of plug in the hole,after 4 days i managed to drill 3/4 of the way down the plug (i think the electrodes are made of unobtainium...they are HARD ) , i tried to drill a little further with a 3mm bit yesterday and got a flood of what i beleive to be coolant ..or... could be plus gas and coolant or ...well im not sure....anybody hazard at guess at what ive got here ?

I suspect ive gone through the wall of the cyclinder and into a coolant path or something similar and basically the vehicle is now scrap or is there a remedy ?

Your thoughts and comments most welcome

Thanks in advance

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi.

Put the drill back in the hole.. compare the angle with the 3 plug holes

With a 3mm drill
I would be amazed if you had wandered that far off course

Why did you try and remove it?

They start fine on 3..and its not an MOT Fail

 

[isthisagoodidea]

Replace the head if the coolant is leaking out ...get one from a breaker and get it skimmed ,new gasket and your good to go ...

 

[PuntoHowTo]

If it’s diesel it will have an obvious diesel smell, if it’s coolant then it’s likely to have a coolant colour to it if you mop it up with a white cloth or paper roll.

As stated it would be impressive if you had managed to go so far off course you punctured the coolant jacket

 

[Ralf S.]

A slide hammer though... Seriously? Ahhhh

What would have been wrong with using a glow-plug socket (£6) and a ratchet???

I'm worried at the level of expertise being inlflicted on this one.

If the liquid you are seeing is pink (or green) and smells of coolant, then it's coolant.
If it smells of WD40, then its WD40.
It's unlikely to be diesel.. but that smells of diesel.


Stick a clean piece of kitchen towel into the hole to soak up all the liquid. Have a sniff of it, out of interest.. then squirt some electrical contact cleaner in there, so that you can wipe out any residual fluids.

When its dry, put a second, clean paper towel in there to soak up anything that re-emerges from wherever it's leaking from. My guess is you're just hitting a pool of Plusgas/WD40 etc. and haven't totally wrecked it yet. Once it's soaked up and dried, it won't come back.. I hope.

If you have a partial hole now (you don't hint that you are drilling with an anti-clockwise drill) then get a screw-in stud extractor and use that. You need to be drilling/tapping with an extractor that is anti-clockwise, otherwise you'll only eventually come out the other side, wherever that is, without actually achieving anything.


Ralf S.

 

[jrkitching]

Hello Folks

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Once it was obvious that the glow plug had snapped and wasn't easily extractable, best practice would have been to remove the cylinder head and deal with it on the bench.

It's hard to know how to say this without causing offense, but it's going to take more skill and finesse than you've shown thus far to get this repaired.

Is it worth paying a decent independent garage to fix it properly? Hard to say; selling it 'as is' might get you more money than its value when fixed minus the cost of repairs.

This would make a reasonable project car for a competent DIY mechanic; it could sell for more than you might think in its current state.

 

[John202020]

Pull the head off or have someone else remove it and see what's going on nothing to loose now?
Everything is fixable with some thought and money?
Sometimes "it's a learning experience "

 

[chris3234]

Company called UK injector and glow plug removal specialise in removing stuck and broken glow plugs They may have been worth contacting after it broke obviously too late now
Know a few garage's that have called them in

 

[Exwind]

Thanks Ralf but i do know what a stud extractor is ...would you like pictures of the ones i have already tried ...all nicely welded to rebar...or perhaps picturers of the m4 and m5 taps and threaded rods i have already tried ? and as for expertise....i have probably spent more time extracting stubborn nuts and bolts and threaded stuff than you've been alive...i used to do it for a living ...however....an unexpected appearence of fluid its time to stop and maybe ask amongst people who may have experienced similar or have some idea of how close the coolant path runs to the glow plug hole ...i'd actually prefer to set the car on fire and warm my feet in the glow but one has to try and help ones offspring keep mobile

 

[Ralf S.]

Eh.. calm down lad. I'm trying to help you out. You didn't say you've used any kind of stud extractor.. just that you were continuing to drill a hole.

There has to be a purpose to drilling a hole .. ultimately it's to get a stud extractor into... so (not knowing you did this for a living) I was wondering what you were trying to achieve going so far through it, when you already had a hole that you could have put an extractor into.

But.. if a whole battery of extracting devices haven't got the plug to shift, then it's probably never going to shift. It may be an idea, as suggested, to get a pro' stud removal guy round to have a go. I had an engine stud removed once and the guy had some drill bit that was blue and cost £80, according to him.. It made short work of the stud.

If a pro' stud removal guy won't know anything more than you do, then the only other option would be to take the head off, which might give you better access for an angle grinder (it won't remove the stud.. but you'll feel better when you've slaughtered it.. ) or just better access to see what's happening in there.

I'm still hopeful the fluid is just residual liquids / spilt oil etc. rather than you punctured something... but if not, then a second-hand head might be in order (although I have seen heads fixed with Araldite and so on... I have no idea if those would produce a permanent fix).

Ralf S.

 

[John202020]

If you think its safe to try, try cranking the engine, if need be remove the fuel pump fuse, either way IF you have made a mistake fluid will come out ?

Use a white cloth to soak up any fluid, is it any colour or smell sweet?

Its all to easy to get really down even with the simplest of issues, sometimes it takes a step back or next day to think around the issue and come up with a plan?

 

[jasonmcnair]

Hello Folks
My daughter has an 09 1.3 multijet 500 and her boyfriend managed to change 3 glow plugs b ut unfortunately snapped the 4th at the collar just above the threads,after improvising a slide hammer i managed to get the top off the glow plug leaving the electrode and remains of plug in the hole,after 4 days i managed to drill 3/4 of the way down the plug (i think the electrodes are made of unobtainium...they are HARD ) , i tried to drill a little further with a 3mm bit yesterday and got a flood of what i beleive to be coolant ..or... could be plus gas and coolant or ...well im not sure....anybody hazard at guess at what ive got here ?

I suspect ive gone through the wall of the cyclinder and into a coolant path or something similar and basically the vehicle is now scrap or is there a remedy ?

Your thoughts and comments most welcome

Thanks in advance

Hi bud I've done the same thing with my vivaro. Coolent comes out from the removed glowplug. I've tried plugging the hole with ct1. It stopped the leak but my Coolent reservoir has lost all the water and when I topped it back up it just kept disappearing. Had no leaks bellow the radiator so it must be going into the engine block. Had it ticking over as normal but when I tried to drive it off it wouldn't go and an oily liquid oozed out from gearbox.