Glow plug bypass
 

I was wondering if there was a way to bypass the glow plug relay, so I can keep the plugs on for a bit after the car turns over in the cold weather? Is this possible?
Thanks-

there's an updated relay that does exactly this, available now from bosch.

You can.

The glow plug relay shuts down when the violet wire to the relay is interrupted by the ignition switch. If you were to manually run the violet wire to a switch in the cabin, you could control when the plugs shutdown.


The alternative is the afterglow relay as mentioned above.

With the violet wire mod, the plugs will shut down in half a minute or so anyway. Just use afterglow rated glow plugs with the mod.

Yep, I forgot about the timer. After the full timeout of the relay, they will shutdown conventionally, so, the risk of burning them out is reduced.

yea, a lot of people don't realize that the light is just an indication ofthe minimum time to when you should start cranking. The glow plugs stay on untill the internal timer drops out or you start cranking. Disabling the violet wire just prevents the glowplug box from sensing that you are cranking so it leaves the plugs on for the full half minute or so.

In cold weather, I usually wait a few seconds extra before cranking for an easier start. That is easier on the plugs than cycling the ign. switch twice while still getting the plugs hotter.

The amber light is NOT what you might think...
 

... and ditto the above and Brian's comments earlier... and IF you are at all skeptical about what the amber light is a true indication of, do as I did... use a VOM to monitor the voltage being delivered to any of the GPs while you are going through the your typical ignition on / start-up procedure. My two 1980(s) would shut off the amber light in ~15-to-20 seconds but kept the GPs powered up for ~45 seconds during the coldest times spells in our rather mild winters here on the coastline No. of S.F., Ca.

P.S. - edit and fill in your car(s) basic stats as you see just below... this to allow us to do a better job of advising you.