Put my vote in for sparks.

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1987 300SDL (324000)

1986 Porsche 951 (944 Turbo) (166000)

1978 Porsche 924 (99000)

1996 Nissan Pathfinder R50 (201000)

That's almost exactly where mine are on the bimmer but lower on the block. They are just so darn easier on my 633csi than on my 300D. That's why I had to put my hat in the spark ring. After driving mainly my now wrecked Mercedes for the last ten months and being rudely thrust back into gassers, I've come to discover I don't like them. I prefer the clatter of a diesel to whatever you want to call it noise that a gasser makes.

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Seth

1984 300D 225K
1985 300D Donor body
1985 300D Turbo 165K. Totaled. Donor Engine. It runs!!!
1980 300SD 311K My New Baby.
1979 BMW 633csi 62K+++? Dead odo

I am thinking of a mid 90's FWD GM rig...horrid...

Regarding the VW, I agree. Most people ***** and complain about them but in all honesty the plugs are pretty easy to remove if you have the right tools to do the job. (simple tools). But then again it takes about as long to pull the engine out of a bug as it does to get the 17mm wrench, the 8mm, screwdriver and jack out.

Yes pulling it is easy. It’s the putting it back in that’s the pain

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Jason Green
1977 240D AUTOMATIC the Beast
1974 Super Beetle



Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

Getting back to my question : if the car starts O.K. is there any need to replace them ? .

BTW : you're right about the ease of V.W. engine removal , we used to actually have ebgine pulling contests where you removed then re-installed the Beetle engine and then had to start it up and back it over the finish line...

Slightly over 3 minutes was the winner , hand tools only .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

If it misses for a few seconds after you crank it then most likely you have at least one bad plug. The cold weather will really let you know in a hurry if they need to be changed. What might suffice for summer just won't cut it for the winter if they're not getting hot enough. I'd say if its not broken, don't mess with it.

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Seth

1984 300D 225K
1985 300D Donor body
1985 300D Turbo 165K. Totaled. Donor Engine. It runs!!!
1980 300SD 311K My New Baby.
1979 BMW 633csi 62K+++? Dead odo

As long as they all glow properly, no. However, for 606 motors which use those slim ones, it would be nice to take them out and make sure they don't sieze up in the bores. Take it out and coat it with anti-sieze.

I do know of a few people that ran their cars to 100K and had their spark plugs sieze up in the bores. Plugs are cheap so if you are going to take it out, why not simply toss them and change them? Here is what happened to me this year. I found that my truck of 60K had no problems till I changed the exhaust manifolds to headers. Then the right 02 sensor started having issues of being "slow". Sometimes the left too but mostly the right. Every repair shop swore the sensors were good much longer than that. Finally I changed both sensors. No problems anymore. Probably the headers were more efficient and then the temp drops a little so the sensors got too cold to work efficiently. I think it was a lazy sensor issue from the wear. It was good enough when the flow was slower but not good enough for when the flow was too effcient.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

All 5 of my glowplugs passed the meter test. However the car wouldn't start in the high 20's. I replaced all five and now she just started this morning at 15 degrees without any issues. When the old glow plugs were hooked up to a battery they got warm but only one glowed red. I think starting is a better test, if you start having starting problems replace all of them.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Did you happen to get an accurate value of the resistance in the old plugs?

Be curious if the resistance is on the high side (1.5-2 or so)???

That's interesting, did your indicator light work normally with these "weak" GPs? I just bench tested the GPs form the 240D (all glowed correctly), I think I'll do the same on the 300D (when it warms up a bit).

I'll have to ask my dad I was at work as he was doing it! He did mention the resistence was a little high on a few of them though.

The indicator worked normanly up until the morning that the car failed to start. But that morning after I tried to start it a couple of times I noticed the gp light wasn't coming on. But that was after like 4-5 gp cycles and a lot of cranking. However if it failed to light and I brought the key back to the 0 position, it would light up. I could hear the relay click so I knew some of them were getting power even if the light wasn't on.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Damn!!

Must be nice to have your own private mechanic.

He wrenches............you post.

Yeah its a good system!!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I thought the DVOM test is only good for if it is really broken and not if it is on the way out? IIRC, someone told me that the only true test is a load test

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

How about a '90's or newer FWD V6 Toyota or Nissan? Just as bad if not worse. We had a 92 Camry V6 we had bought new. When we sold it 10 years later, I had only pulled the 3 in the front bank and I managed to pull one of the rears to clean and check gap. The other 2 in the rear bank were never touched. There was no way maybe short of pulling the intake manfold and that would have be way more work than worth bothering with. That car was a POS, maybe almost as big a POS as the 87 300D I now have.

I changed the plugs on a bug once. The threads came out with the threads on one side. I was working in a shop then. I told the manager what happened and he said to just go ahead and put the new plugs in. So I let him start and pull the car out of the service bay. After a few cranks, the car went putt-putt-putt-KAPOW-putt-KAPOW! I was ROTFLMAO!

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012