Help with Broken Glow Plugs

[FiestaLee]

Hi everyone, I am new to this group and I'm looking for some advice/help. My son in laws Fiesta acquired a fault code ( P0380-60 ) which pointed to the glow plug area. So I changed the relay with no success, I then bought some new glow plugs and decided to change them, even though I have no experience lol. I was told that these plugs are not situated very well as they were at the back of the engine on the 1.4 tdci. Sure enough, I found them very tricky, so much that 2 snapped while removing them. I removed the glow plugs leaving the snapped bits still in the head ( about an inch of the tip on both). I've seen some extractor kits but I know I wouldn't be able to get the tools to the plug site. I'm assuming I would have to strip everything down to get to the head.?

Any help would be much appreciated

Cheers
Lee

[eddie eastwood]

This is how another member did it:-

Thank you guys for your advice this is how i got it out

 the full tip was stuck in the head, what i did was to soak it in penetrating oil for 3 days, then i drilled out the old broken glo plug all the way through with a long 3.3mm drill bit, sawn off the tip where the wire fits onto, and i now had a home made guide ready for drilling out the stuck glo plug tip, after drilling out the tip i then tapped it with a 4mm extra long tap, i bought a piece of 200mm long 4mm threaded rod from eBay and screwed it into the broken glo plug then just pulled it out, this is a similar way to the very expensive tip extractor kits that are available,i used a another old plug and did the same but drilled it through with a 4.5mm drill bit so i could use that one as a guide for tapping the thread, i hope this helps and works for others. I will say that changing the glo plugs is not an easy job on a cmax 1.6 tdci, everything is hard to get to,you will need an angle drill to drill it out as there is no space for a normal drill,use a peck drilling method with plenty of cutting lubricant, dont rush or you might break the drill bit ,good luck.

[isetta]

I know it's a bit late to say this to you but someone else might be reading this in the future.

it's one of those jobs you probably wish you never started on. A previous diesel I had seemed to have a potential glow plug fault in that when cold the tickover was erratic and it smoked a bit (only when cold). But I knew there were potential problems with glow plugs snapping so I decided to put up with the car how it was. The fault did not stop me using it. Snapped off glowplugs would stop me using it so why risk it.

So, would snapped off glowplugs stop me using it? well if it runs with a dead glowplug it will run with a snapped glowplug  BUT will that snapped off bit suddenly come out like a bullet when you are thrashing the car up a hill - well you can't rule it out and it could be very very dangerous, literally like a bullet.  you might think let's screw the threaded part back in so it can't come out that way. But then could the broken bit eventually shift and end up in the cylinder to destroy thhe piston / valves? well I don't know but it could be risky.

I am never going to touch glowplugs unless the fault actually stops me using the car at all.

Did you check them with circuit tester / ohmeter?  before trying to remove them? it does not seem likely all 4 were dead

[FiestaLee]

On 8/13/2019 at 11:51 AM, eddie eastwood said:

This is how another member did it:-

Thank you guys for your advice this is how i got it out

 the full tip was stuck in the head, what i did was to soak it in penetrating oil for 3 days, then i drilled out the old broken glo plug all the way through with a long 3.3mm drill bit, sawn off the tip where the wire fits onto, and i now had a home made guide ready for drilling out the stuck glo plug tip, after drilling out the tip i then tapped it with a 4mm extra long tap, i bought a piece of 200mm long 4mm threaded rod from ebay and screwed it into the broken glo plug then just pulled it out, this is a similar way to the very expensive tip extractor kits that are available,i used a another old plug and did the same but drilled it through with a 4.5mm drill bit so i could use that one as a guide for tapping the thread, i hope this helps and works for others. I will say that changing the glo plugs is not an easy job on a cmax 1.6 tdci, everything is hard to get to,you will need an angle drill to drill it out as there is no space for a normal drill,use a peck drilling method with plenty of cutting lubricant, dont rush or you might break the drill bit ,good luck.

Thankyou for posting this. I am going to try this method rather than stripping the whole engine down. 

Will let you know how I get on

Cheers

Lee

[Comares2001]

On 8/13/2019 at 1:51 PM, isetta said:

 

Did you check them with circuit tester / ohmeter?  before trying to remove them? it does not seem likely all 4 were dead

It happens. I had a Mondeo that one winter became very difficult to start from cold in winter but then ok when warm. When I checked the plugs all 4 were open circuit. I bought new plugs and got my local garage to replace them (they had the extra long socket required for this to avoid breaking them ) after soaking with WD40 every day for a week.All ok afterwards. Best guess was that they had failed one at a time over a long period. You'll start it with 3 or 2 and even one working if your lucky.