Lent out a working car
 

But when I picked it up the glow plug light in the car was not working and the car would not start. The employee that took the car said he was having trouble with it starting so he used a screwdriver to get it to ground. He broke glow plug number 3 and the fuse strip on the glow plug controller is broken. I replaced the glow plug and need to order a new fuse strip. However when I try to jump the fuse strip I still get no light, and I cannot find any power. Is there another fuse? Is my glow plug controller shot?

Since you cannot be sure of what an individual did in your situation keep an open mind. Find the large power feed to the glow plug relay and see if there is voltage present there first. Hard to be sure of what may be burnt out if anything.

He pretty well had to introduce a direct short after the blown fuse and somehow activated the glow circuit. Hard to say what else he may have done.

Would be useful to confirm info on year/model, so we can visualize what is happening here.

I assume you are going to suggest he confine his automotive skills to cars he's paid for himself. :eek:

You don't have it too bad. That 240D in my signature was lent out to an employee and it came back with a blown engine. Now hopefully this is an easy fix, it might be wise to read the electrical troubleshooting manual for your car.

On loaning cars unless you know the individuals general outlook and various skills are good. Particularily common sense.

Either explain everything to them or do not loan an older car. If I loan anything and it breaks in my care. If it is my fault or not I feel obligated to repair it. So I will in general not loan much from people as a general policy.

You are probably over twenty five years old and appreciate when someone offers you any help, other wise if you are under twenty five and borrowed something from someone and it did not work up to your expectations it would take two days for you to tear them up on FBOOK for lending you crap. I hope for your sake that the mentioned employee only has access for use on the job of no more than a PC.

Post whether you have loop or series style GP's as borrower may have shorted one GP and thus disabled ones further down line line.

1984 300sd
 

The car is a 1984 300SD. The big red wire coming into the black box has no power. I can't find power in the black plastic box where the fuse is located.

The large wire with the 10mm nut should have power at all times, even with ignition key off. Let me look at a wire diagram and see if i can find out where that wire is wired into, prolly the starter or alternator harness, let me take a look and see and i'll let you know what i find.

the large red wire has no power??? I cannot imagine what he burned out to kill power to that wire... it's directly to the battery harness... perhaps you are measuring wrong?

Wait...
 

Let me be sure I've comprehended the sequence of events...

You "Lent" your car to someone (An Employee???) who proceeded to
"Tear Up" YOUR CAR without so much as a courtesy call to you?

Tell me this ******* is no longer employed by you,PLEASE!

OR

Tell me that, THAT type of individual portrays the character traits that
you seek in employees...
In which case ALL this and MORE be upon your own head!

"Fool me once" , nah, your outa here. This guy must be really good at something if your keeping him around.

Lent out my 83 to a friend ,3 weeks later I get red camera photo with a nice ticket ,he did make good on the ticket costs but should at least admitted guilt before the letter to debter was recieved.

According the wiring diagram, the large red wire follows this path:

Battery-Starter-C105 (terminal, RH front fender well)-C100 (terminal, fuse box)-Glow Plug Relay

For the large red wire to not have power, something had to be taken loose. C100 supplies direct power to the fuse box.

Here is a link to the FSM for wiring diagrams. I've been saving the files on a flash drive to have easier access to the files. Mercedes-Benz 126 Service Manual Library

Perhaps there is a ground problem. This would explain both the starting problem and the no power on the large red wire. Check both battery-chassis and especially the chassis-engine grounds. I had wildly intermittent starting problems when the chassis-engine strap worked loose on mine.