I recently purhased a 1981 300D. The car had started easily everytime until yesterday. I noticed that when the key was turned to the NO II position that the glow light was not coming on. This morning I tried to turn the engine numerous times but it would not turn over although the exhaust did emit quite a bit of smoke. Finally I ended up taking my wife's car to work. Any suggestions? I've read other threads regarding glow plugs and it sounds like the same issue.

Thanks

Check your 80 amp strip fuse. Mine popped during a start also. Then check your GP's.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Try reading up on this page. It will really help you get an understanding of what is going on and how to fix it.

http://www.dieselgiant.com/glowplugrepair.htm

-Jim

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1995 S350D, Green with black leather interior.
Bought January 2008 w/ 233,xxx miles.
I did 22,000 miles during the first year of ownership.

There really should be a sticky about gp's with a link to that page this time of year.

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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 live in San Diego and it was about 65 degrees at 9 am. Are th glow plugs only meant for cold weather starts or just starts in general?

Starts in general.

Restarting the engine at operating temp will usually not need the glow plugs, below that they do to a verying degree. When shut down for 15min or less in the summer my cars usually only get a couple of seconds of glow light.

At 65F ambient, I would expect the car to start a little rough without glow plugs, but start. I haven't had a pre 60X diesel though so I can't say for sure.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

My only observations of this are of my car and a 300SD 617 that a friend of mine has. At 65F, cold engine, my 603, with no glowing whatsoever, I expect it to crank and run roughly (as in, crank on 5/6 cylinders at first) after four to five seconds of cranking - but I'm assuming that only works because my glowplug relay keeps them glowing even after I turn the key. I have never unhooked the relay to see if I could get away with it.

A friend of mine has an 82 SD, and I've seen her get in it on a +/-60F day (it's been a while) and hit it, cold engine, without waiting for it - and it fired right off after just a second or two. So I guess it's just a matter of how finicky the particular engine is.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Will someone direct me on where to find my 80 amp strip fuses.

Thank you

Top of this page under the buy parts tab. Put in the year make and model of your car. Then search for fuse.

-Jim

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1995 S350D, Green with black leather interior.
Bought January 2008 w/ 233,xxx miles.
I did 22,000 miles during the first year of ownership.

Atually I meant where are they located on the car itself? 1981 300D

Second picture down in the tutorial on the Diesel Giant page that I linked to in the third post.

-Jim

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1995 S350D, Green with black leather interior.
Bought January 2008 w/ 233,xxx miles.
I did 22,000 miles during the first year of ownership.

Perfect!!

Thank you all for your help, I'll try all the suggestions tonight and let you know.

With one bad glow plug your engine will probably start but rough
With two bad glow plugs you will not get the glow light on the dash and the engine will probably not start
the Diesel Giant writeup is the best place to start.

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1983 300SD
200000miles

Using the diesel giant link I discovered that the flat fuse in the glow plug relay was fried in half. I'm looking for the part today and will repost the results.

Thanks again!!

I replaced the bridge fuse in the glow plug relay and poof car starts like butter evry time. Thanks for the insight