Ciprian
Spark Plugs not allowed!
Hi folks,
About 2 months ago I had the check engine light come on. I hook up my DAD to the van and I got 2 codes: P1482 and 2134. P1482 means that the glow plug module blew an internal fuse link and 2134 says that the glow plug #2 is bad.
All good and well, the van would still start fine even in 25 degrees and I did not have time to mess with it for a while. The check engine light would go off after a few cycles, and then would show up again, and then would clear, and come back over and over.
One day, I disconnected the glow plug connector from the glow plug module and tested all glow plugs with Dr. A's method. I got a 20 amps fuse and connected all glow plugs through the fuse to the + terminal on the battery. When I would touch the wire to the battery terminal I would get a little spark on all glow plugs, meaning that none of the glow plugs failed open, but interestingly enough, none of the glow plugs would burn the fuse, meaning that none were shorted. Weird.
I connected the connector back to the module since I did not have time to go any further.
About a month later I took the module out and opened it up to see what I would find in there. Sure enough, one fusible link was blown, the one from glow plug #1, not the one from #2 as the code suggested. But this is understandable, since MB messed up the software a bit and it has a glitch.
But this puzzled me since the #1 glow plug showed good by Dr. A's test. So, I proceeded to test the glow plugs again, and this time the fuse would blow right away on glow plug #1, so definitely the glow plug was shorted. I was so scared to even attempt to take out the glow plug fearing a broken plug and then more trouble to fix than to leave it alone. But after a while I got enough courage to attempt removing the glow plug. I warmed up the engine to 180 degrees, shut the engine off and I applied just a little torque on the glow plug and it broke loose. Then slowly it came out as easy as anything. I was very surprised at how easy it came out, since I have over 380k miles on the van. I then put some anti seize lubricant on the threads of the new glow plug and installed it back in, and then I torqued it to 19 Nm.
Then I modified my module with 5 external fuses, thanks to surelyoldbill for the idea, and finally had the time last week to put it all together back in the van. Finally, I have a van that is cel free. That check engine light started to get on my nerves.
So, definitely I had a glow plug that would short out intermittently, and no, it was not the wire harness, since when I got the plug out and tested it, it was shorted.
I only changed the one bad glow plug. I will change the other ones as they go bad, since it doesn't cost me but a few cents for a new fuse when another one goes.
This is the modified module, I know it does not look as professional as surelyoldbill's, but it works.
The culprit.
The old, together with the new.
About 2 months ago I had the check engine light come on. I hook up my DAD to the van and I got 2 codes: P1482 and 2134. P1482 means that the glow plug module blew an internal fuse link and 2134 says that the glow plug #2 is bad.
All good and well, the van would still start fine even in 25 degrees and I did not have time to mess with it for a while. The check engine light would go off after a few cycles, and then would show up again, and then would clear, and come back over and over.
One day, I disconnected the glow plug connector from the glow plug module and tested all glow plugs with Dr. A's method. I got a 20 amps fuse and connected all glow plugs through the fuse to the + terminal on the battery. When I would touch the wire to the battery terminal I would get a little spark on all glow plugs, meaning that none of the glow plugs failed open, but interestingly enough, none of the glow plugs would burn the fuse, meaning that none were shorted. Weird.
I connected the connector back to the module since I did not have time to go any further.
About a month later I took the module out and opened it up to see what I would find in there. Sure enough, one fusible link was blown, the one from glow plug #1, not the one from #2 as the code suggested. But this is understandable, since MB messed up the software a bit and it has a glitch.
But this puzzled me since the #1 glow plug showed good by Dr. A's test. So, I proceeded to test the glow plugs again, and this time the fuse would blow right away on glow plug #1, so definitely the glow plug was shorted. I was so scared to even attempt to take out the glow plug fearing a broken plug and then more trouble to fix than to leave it alone. But after a while I got enough courage to attempt removing the glow plug. I warmed up the engine to 180 degrees, shut the engine off and I applied just a little torque on the glow plug and it broke loose. Then slowly it came out as easy as anything. I was very surprised at how easy it came out, since I have over 380k miles on the van. I then put some anti seize lubricant on the threads of the new glow plug and installed it back in, and then I torqued it to 19 Nm.
Then I modified my module with 5 external fuses, thanks to surelyoldbill for the idea, and finally had the time last week to put it all together back in the van. Finally, I have a van that is cel free. That check engine light started to get on my nerves.
So, definitely I had a glow plug that would short out intermittently, and no, it was not the wire harness, since when I got the plug out and tested it, it was shorted.
I only changed the one bad glow plug. I will change the other ones as they go bad, since it doesn't cost me but a few cents for a new fuse when another one goes.
This is the modified module, I know it does not look as professional as surelyoldbill's, but it works.
The culprit.
The old, together with the new.