Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuckG
Why are you changing the glow plugs? Unless you have a failure there is really no reason to change them. If one fails the engine will run just fine. The glow plugs are just used when starting. One cylinder with the bad glow plug will fire OK after the rest of the engine starts up and run. I had one glow plug fail because its power supply had too high of voltage that burned it out. The only indication was a check engine light. The engine ran well with the glow plug burned out.
Chuck
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That's not true in our car. Glow plugs are also used under light load when the coolant temperature is below 75C. Below that temperature the DDE enriches the mixture to accelerate warmup and uses the glow plugs to improve combustion and reduce soot that would otherwise result from the richer mixture.
When the thermostat fails (as in ninja's case) the engine runs cooler too long or in some cases doesn't even go above 75C which results in extra duty for the glow plugs that burns out. This (the temperature dropping as a result of a failing thermostat) is particularly true when there's a light load which is a precondition for the use of glow plugs