Over a year ago i purchased an 81 240d as my daily driver. the first month that I had it, I bought new glow plugs becuase I figured I had no idea how long those GPs were in there and I dont want to possibly be stranded for such a stupid and easy thing to fix. I bought Autolites...this is was a big mistake. I changed my bosch GP and saved them incase of an emergency and installed the autolites. Six months later my car wont start in the morning and I thought i was in a world of trouble becuase I knew that it couldn't be the GP. I tried to see if the GP relay needed replacing, pulled the battery to see if it needed to be replaced...the list goes on and on. After a couple hours I took my light tester and found that I had power to all the wires that attach to my glow plugs. I figured "what the ****...I'll pull the GP" to convince myself that they are good and move on. Three out of the four that I replaced less than six month prior were absolutly dead. And what pissed me off was that I didn't think to save the reciept to take them back. I took the original glow plugs that I saved for "emergencies" and installed them and for 8 months they have been in the 240. Knowing that the cold season is almost here, the other day, i figured I will pull them to see if they all still work. Sure enough my bosch GP that have been in that car for God knows how long, burn red hot in less than 3 seconds. Always use bosch and never get the ****ty autolites or any after market, american made piece of **** GP.
-Stephen