I've recently acquired a 1982 300cd with 107k miles. The car is in great condition. The glow plug light seemed to turn off rather quickly, but the car always started. One morning when I tried to start it, the glow plug light didn't come on at all, and it started hard. I've checked all the fuses, and the metal strip under the rectangular plastic box on the driver's side fender. Everything is fine. Do glow plug relays suddenly stop working? I am assuming that the aforementioned plastic box is the relay, and if so, can I pirate the relay out of my 82 300d and plunk it in? My 4 door doesn't see much action these days, because the coupe is such a blast to drive, I'd like to troubleshoot this before spending any money. Thanks in advance.

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1982 300d -Adolf- Got it for 500 bucks from a guy that thought he knew how to make biodiesel. Even the best diesels won't run on burnt french fry ends! 318,000 and counting
1982 300cd -Erwin- 107,000 miles! The most fun you can have in a diesel. Wrecked by an idiot, massive insurance payout for me. Tough to see you go, my friend.
1983 300d -Katrina- Another five hundred bucks. Straight outta New Orleans, by way of Maryland. Work in progress. 291,000 and counting

yes,
yes,
and
Yes.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Wonderful. Thank you much.

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1982 300d -Adolf- Got it for 500 bucks from a guy that thought he knew how to make biodiesel. Even the best diesels won't run on burnt french fry ends! 318,000 and counting
1982 300cd -Erwin- 107,000 miles! The most fun you can have in a diesel. Wrecked by an idiot, massive insurance payout for me. Tough to see you go, my friend.
1983 300d -Katrina- Another five hundred bucks. Straight outta New Orleans, by way of Maryland. Work in progress. 291,000 and counting

It seems everyone suspects the Glow Plug Relay first.
It most often is an issue with the Glow Plugs themselves.
The Diesel Giant Site has a good pictorial on how to check the Glow Plugs with an Ohm Meter. (This is not an endorsement to buy parts from that site.)

If you do not have one Harbor Freight sells inexpansive Digital Volt Ohm Meters (Multimeters).

Reguardless of what the Glow Plug Light is doing if you leave the Key in the Preglow poisition you can preglow for about 30 seconds; after that the Relay timer shuts it off.
You can also cycle the Key back and forth and start another Preglow Cycle.

If you remove any Glow Plugs ream out or otherwise clean out the Carbon from the Glow Plug Holes.
Only Bosch and Beru Glow Plugs hold up well.

The tips on the Autolite Glow Plugs can swell (this happened to me).
The Monark Glow Plugs do not last long (ya, I tried them also).

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I swapped out the relay, and still no light. There is power at the relay, and both sides of the strip fuse. Will a faulty glowplug keep the light from coming on? I will test them as per the DIY on diesel giant tomorrow. I don't seem to get any kind of glow from the plugs at all. Right now, the car starts like my four door when it's 5 degrees out, no matter how long I leave the key in the on position before I try and start it.

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1982 300d -Adolf- Got it for 500 bucks from a guy that thought he knew how to make biodiesel. Even the best diesels won't run on burnt french fry ends! 318,000 and counting
1982 300cd -Erwin- 107,000 miles! The most fun you can have in a diesel. Wrecked by an idiot, massive insurance payout for me. Tough to see you go, my friend.
1983 300d -Katrina- Another five hundred bucks. Straight outta New Orleans, by way of Maryland. Work in progress. 291,000 and counting

"No light" is how the fault indication system indicates a failed glow plug. Or plugs.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

Its a long series connection. Any faulty part in the entire series will stop the whole series from working.

El Cheepo DVM's as many have posted here work very well and at under $10 are a deal you cant afford not to have. I actually just won another won, $4.16 delivered.

Been several yrs since I bought one and my current buy just confirms the price.

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Some magazines will have a full page add with coupons, a 20% off coupon and something free. screw driver set, tape measure, gloves etc... or some times a digital volt meter. I just got another one last week, not Iam up to about 20 of them.

Rod and Custom, Hot Rod and the AAA Via mag have the adds.

X2 on checking the GP`s, if the second Relay didn`t change anything. pull them out and put power to them, the ends should get bright red, if not, toss them.

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

On an '82 300CD, the glow plugs are wired in parallel, not in series. A failure of any combination of glow plugs has no affect on the functioning plugs.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

I'm fairly certain he's discussing the glow plug indicator circuit... not the plugs themselves.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

The GP relay on the 123s uses a current sensor to determine if all the GPs are drawing current. it announces the failure by not allowing the dash light to come on.

It is possible to be one plug down and the light still come on. However when you get two plugs down the light should not come on.

To verify the light still works pull the 4-pin connector from the relay and jump battery to pin 3. This should turn on the dash light.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

Or he could spend that time ohming his glow plugs. From the description he probably has two or three bad ones, with #1 very likely being one of them. They aren't hard to check, they aren't expensive, and they aren't hard to change.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

alright, so I got five new bosch plugs from a parts house around here, slapped them in, and all is well. Starts like it's 1982 again. I have yet to test the plugs I pulled out, but if I find any that are good, they're going into my 300d. Thanks for all your help guys

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1982 300d -Adolf- Got it for 500 bucks from a guy that thought he knew how to make biodiesel. Even the best diesels won't run on burnt french fry ends! 318,000 and counting
1982 300cd -Erwin- 107,000 miles! The most fun you can have in a diesel. Wrecked by an idiot, massive insurance payout for me. Tough to see you go, my friend.
1983 300d -Katrina- Another five hundred bucks. Straight outta New Orleans, by way of Maryland. Work in progress. 291,000 and counting

Thanks Tango... I thought they were all in series.

Still boils down to a very simple ohm check of each glow plug or pull them and connect them to the battery.

__________________
1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."