Even if you cut the bulb out indicator, or found another W124 diesel and took the glow decal out of it, so you have 2 glow indicators, that would be cool....

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91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

With difficulty I was able to jam two strips into the one slot; with just one symbol cut out and glued onto the back on the proper strip it should be OK and would save a lot of work. Thanks for the idea. I'll have to decide which symbol to use for "afterglow."

Jeremy

Attached Thumbnails

 

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

The bulb out indicator would be kinda cool

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91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

OK, the #2 bulb position (that's how Mercedes numbers them, the preglow light is #1) in my instrument cluster is now an "Afterglow" indicator. It lights when the ignition is turned on and stays on until the preglow relay times out (30 seconds in my '87 300D) unless the engine is warm (coolant temperature over 50C). In that case, the light (and the glow plugs) go out when the starter is energized. The combination gives you afterglow when you need it – when the engine is cold. It minimizes the extra wear on the glow plugs by not working when it's not needed – when the engine is already warm.



Should you need the glow plugs to stay on for the full 30 seconds before starting the engine (in very cold weather, for instance) and you are in a noisy environment where you can't hear the preglow relay click off, the afterglow light also tells you that "time's up."

To install the afterglow light, you first need to get at the #1 glow plug wire. The easiest place to do this is at the connector on the preglow relay). Note: it really doesn't matter which glow plug wire you use. Use #2 if you want. See if I care.



Unplug the connector from the preglow relay, pop the top off of the connector, extract the #1 wire (black with a blue stripe in my car) and put the cap back to keep the other wires in place.



Now add a wire for the Afterglow lamp. Light wire (18-22 gauge stranded) is fine. Use a soldering iron to head the pin and slide the new wire in alongside the #1 glow plug wire. If you want, remove the pin, knock out all the old solder, and then resolder with both wires in place.

Add an in-line fuse to protect you if the wire ever shorts to ground – the preglow system is fused too high (80 Amps) and won't keep a short circuit from causing a fire or at least burning up the new wire. The lamp draws about 0.1 Amp so any 0.25 to 1.0 Amp fuse is OK. When the installation under the hood is finished, it will look something like the following picture.

Run the new wire along the inner fender to the firewall and pass it through the rubber sleeve so it comes out in the passenger compartment, behind the instrument cluster. You don't need to pull the under-dash panel, the new wire comes in above it.



Now remove the cluster and add the new lamp in the blank position #2. The lamp socket should be wired to the new wire that you just pushed through and to any convenient ground point.



It was suggested that I try pasting one of the symbols from my spare cluster over the existing diesel strip that labels the right side. However, I discovered that the diesel strip is green in position #2 and the symbols that I would use are either yellow or red. Either one, combined with the existing green, is so dark that it is very hard to see. I didn't want to cut the existing diesel strip so I left it unlabeled for now. I'll experiment with making a label that says "Afterglow."

That's all there is to it. Total parts, one relay, one fuse and holder, one lamp and socket, some wire. My cost, zero – all junk box parts.

Clean – reversible – inexpensive.

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

I love this idea. I would like to do a similar mod to my w123 300D, but haven't figured out if there was an afterglow relay that I could just plug in place of the existing relay.

I have also done the instrument cluster mod, except that I tapped power for the light from the strip fuse on my car's glow plug relay. I didn't feel like cutting/tapping into any wires. And well, it works - the strip fuse only seems to get power when the glow plugs are on.

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Darren Asuncion
'81 300D Silver Blue metallic
'04 MINI Cooper S, Indi Blue w/ White roof
'94 Jeep Cherokee Sport, Flame Red
'95 Land Rover Discovery, Corallin Red

Possibly the afterglow relay from a 90-93 300D 2.5 is a plug-n-play alternative for you.

I don't know if the afterglow relay from a 90-95 S-class will care that your engine has only 5 glow plugs.

Sixto
87 300D

After a couple of false starts, I figured out an easy way to mark the instrument cluster so that it says "AFTER GLOW." All you need is a stick-on labeler like the one in the picture. There are several brands out there, mine is a Brother "P-touch." You need to use 1/2 inch clear tape; gray lettering would be perfect but I used black 'cause that's all I had. Besides, I don't know if gray lettering exists.

Use whatever font you like – a sanserif font will most closely match what is already on the labeling in the cluster. Use CAPS, BOLD the font, and CENTER it so that the printout looks like the inset in the picture. Stick the resulting label on the front of the blank place (green in my '87 300D) and put the strip back in the cluster. You're done!

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

How about just an afterglow smiley, ... or is that a different afterglow?

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

You mean an icon featuring a couple of cigarettes?

Sixto
87 300D

I found white on clear, I wonder how well that works. Gonna have the office supply gal here order me some!

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91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

Let us know how white on clear works. Might look better than black in the daylight; at night it doesn't matter 'cause you're looking at a silhouette.

BTW, I discovered another use for the afterglow light: it tells you that (if) your glowplug relay is stuck ON. I've never had such a problem but understand that it wears out a battery quickly, since the glow plugs draw more current than many alternators produce..

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Well, I found out the W126 has a red slot, not a green slot

But heres the white on clear P Touch Tape.

Jeremy if You want, i can make you a few and mail them.

Heres some pics.

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91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

Jeremy, this is a great write up, should get into the DIY Articles. (WIKI).

Does the W124 have the black box on the left inner fender with the AC fan relay under it like the W123? the ice cube relay.

If it does, why not cut one out of a w123 at PNP, relay and the connector and some wire pig tail. then it would look factory and be protected under the box.

Just a thought.

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

Just a question, The afterglow means that the G plugs stay on for a few seconds after the engine starts? I assume this would stop allot of sputtering on cold days?

Is it possible to roll back the odometer in one of these things?