Hi,
When I turn the ignition key to no2, the glow plug light goes out as normal after a few secs.
However when I start the engine it comes back on and stays on for about 20secs, before going out.

Is this normal?
The handbook says that the light should not come back on when the ignition is started.

thanks
Amolak
V220 2000

No, it's not normal. It indicates a problem in the glow plug system. I would guess most likely a bad glow plug ot two. Glow plugs can be easily tested with an ohm meter at the glow plug connection. Good glow plugs will read 0.6 ohms when cold. If they all test as okay, then you can move on to other possibilities.

Len

I have had a similar problem for the past two months. My glow plug light will stay on after the car has started. It will stay on for as long as I have dared to keep running it. I have had to turn off and restart the car two to three times to get the light to cycle off. If I let the glow plugs fire for 40 seconds or longer before starting the car, the light does not come on after start-up. I live in Palm Springs so I am not looking foreward to sitting in my 170 degree farenheit car this summer for one minute everytime I start the car. It seems to me that the problem has something to do with the ignition, because if I rattle the key a bit in the ignition it seems help a little bit. I do have a sporadic vacuum leak in my shut off. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to shut off, sometimes shut off is instant. I'm guessing that it's a vacuum leak at the ignition, but possibly a connection problem at the ignition-glow plug relay. I've searched high and low through the diesel forum and have not found the same problem that I have. Diesel gods--Please, I need your widsdom.

A glow plug light coming on when it shouldn't generally means one or more bad glow plugs. Have you tested them with an ohm meter? Takes about ten minutes max. Good plugs will read 0.6 ohms. Once you have confirmed that all the glow plugs are working, then you can look for other things. But check the thing the glow plug light is trying to tell you first.

Len