Well, I know I have seen some posts about people going to start their cars and they wont start or start strangely and the glow light flashes while this is happening. I have a little twist to add to it this time. Sunday morning the car started a bit harder than normal, but it was the first time I had started it since the weather had really snapped into stormy weather, and it had been sitting for 3 days, so I wrote it off to that. Been starting running and driving normally fine since. This afternoon got off work, turned key, glow light came on, timed out, then off as normal, cranked and started normally right up. Warmed up a few minutes and headed off the plant site, got out on the road, had been running at least 10, going on 15 minutes now, driving at 40MPH, temp is at 60, I see this blink of a faint glow for a split second in my right vision, was that?....nah couldnt be....there it is again.....a bit brighter, but just a dim glow for a second, but the glow light it was. Then it comes on full brightness, blinks on then off,on then............keeps doing this until engine temp reaches 80, approx 5 minutes or so, then stops, all normal, got home, shut 'er down, turned key on, glow comes on, times out, then off as normal. Didn't bother with trying to start as engine was already hot so it would fire up regardless of plugs. Not really sure what that little episode was about as I thought the glow plugs had fallen out of the picture by this point of time on the road. Just in case it was a warning sign of eminent failure, I loaded up a 12mm wrench, small crescent wrench, my 4 spare glows out of the old 240 engine, and my spare relay module complete with good fuse strip in the car tonight should I be out and discover a sudden need for them.....

Should I just write this off as a fluke of nature? I have the individual type wiring setup on the glows, not the series plugs.
-Chris 80 240D w617 motor (on original 240 glow module)

My old wagon did this, and it was the relay. I wouldn't think it would be one of the glow plugs if it did this during driving. I think the fact that the light came on and then your temp climbed indicated they were truly on, and actually working properly. Relay should be the most likely culprit causing that I would guess.
Very impressive counter measures you are taking. Thorough......

just an fyi
Odd electrical problem

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Could be the glow plug temp sensor too.

__________________
1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

[QUOTE=JimmyL;1330298]Very impressive counter measures you are taking. Thorough......

As Elvis said, hankyavurymush......
The downside to being so thorough with everything I do is that my 42x60 shop has no room to put any cars in right now...UGH! I keep saying I'm gonna off some of these parts,lol. (BTW I do have things available for sale to the needy, Mercedes,Chevy, & Toyota.) Please come to the aid of my shop floor!

Everything was fine once again today, started right up cold and ran as always has, this morning to work and this afternoon back, and no flashies.

Temp sensor, hadn't thought of that....got one somewhere in a coffee can with the spare connector pins and stuff, I'll dig that out tomorrow...

Well, its not going to let me off so easy afterall I guess, Monday it had the weird flashes once, Tuesday it was fine, then Wednesday it acted up again, twice in the same trip, this time I paid attention as it was dark out still so I could see the light while driving easily. It appears to be a code, one flash, then 4, then 43, same cycle the second time it did it near the end of the trip. In any case after I get back from the road trip I'm taking tomorrow in the truck, (trading a 63 Chevy 1 ton 4x4 for a 51 Chrysler Concord fastback) I'm going to go through all the plugs with an ohmmeter, and go through the module as well.

-Chris 80 240D w/617 motor
-too many others to list

You have a lot of time on your hands.

There is no real "brain" in these cars so I'm not sure what would be generating the code. Could be a coincidence. Have you checked that temp sensor yet?

__________________
1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

I haven't had a chance to check into anything on it yet, I didnt get back from my trip until 8:30 last night. Today was my "late" day at work, 7-5:30, which really screws up any usefulness of the day as its just beginning to show daylight when I leave and dark when I return. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a chance, but its supposed to rain.....we'll see. So long as it keeps running I'll keep driving it 'till I can look at it, and if it quits, that's what AAA is for...
I may have a lot of time, but I'll be damned if I can find it,lol

Ok, finally got to digging into things, I should note the light has not flashed today or yesterday.
I pulled the connector from the glow module to the plugs to isolate them, and reading from the a/c line bracket on front of the engine block (as ground) to the nut on each glow plug, they all read 1.1 ohms, which I believe is reasonable (correct me if I'm wrong). I pulled the plug off the temp sensor and read the sensor at around 830 ohms (hot engine that had been sitting for about an hour) I dont know what the range of that sensor is, hopefully someone will know if that sounds reasonable...
Checked the cleanliness and tightness of all connections and fuse in module and put everything back together.

I noticed some oil on my starter wires tonight while under there rooting about, seems to be dripping from a pipe plug in the underside of the intake under the air cleaner throat. I pulled the air filter lid and the area inside of the filter (engine side) has a wet oily film, but no actual buildup or filter media saturation, is this normal? Smelled a lot like diesel not oil. Looks like I might want to clean my intake soon too, lot of sludgy looking stuff in there. (Non egr)
-Chris 80 240D w/617 motor