Trees and barking

[Firepipey]

I've got another thread in the Multipla section and it's raised another question for me which might benefit from a wider opinion. In summary, I have what appears to be the very common "glow plug light stays on for 30 seconds after starting" problem on a 1.9JTD. Knacked plug somewhere but it always starts with no problem. Multiscan returns a P0380 error which is right. No other error codes are reported.

I'm also getting an Eng Ctrl Faulty on the dash display at the same time but the engine warning light on the dash goes off when the car is started and doesn't come back on. The screen display error message doesn't come back when driving. In fact, all is as it should be. Defo not in limp mode or running badly.

One of the glowplugs is seized in and the garage want to take the head off to get at it. Big bucks methinks and I want to be sure it'll sort the problem before going ahead!! My old 1.9JTD never gave the error message and ran well even though the glow plug light flashed merrily away for all the time I had it.

The question is then "Does the P0380 error usually prompt an Eng Ctrl Faulty display or am I barking up the wrong tree and it'll be something else completely unrelated"?

 

[8valver]

if it aint broke dont fix it hundreds of pounds to remove an annoying error display that clears itself doesnt compute

if a garage want to take the head off to remove a seizrd glow plug then thats wrong

would be logical to gingerly attempt it and if it breaks then take the head off if you must..


see if the code disapears if you replace the remaining 3

but on the 4th siezed plug
attach it to the harness where it would usualy go
the thread or hex will have to touch engine earth but be careful not to rest the heating element on anything. may be hard to do but mole grips may come in handy.

the glow plug feed is actually drawing a certain current monitored by the glow controller or ecu whichever system is fitted.
this wrong current measured if one or more glow plugs fail causes faults to log on certain systems.

thats why as long as you have the 4 plugs in the circuit you are eliminating these from causing your codes