sharpe

Active Member
Evening

As the title suggests, was wondering if anyone could give me a recommendation on a brand, lots out there starting at £10 for four to £15 each. Ive replaced them recently, with a cheap set :rolleyes: not state where got them from but its not improved the starting, probably made it worse :eek: So before I go out and spend some proper money on some - anyone replaced theirs recently and thought - wow - thats better!

Cheers muchly - (search doesn't show up anything; not that i could see)
 
Pull em and bench test em.

Tht is clamp in a vice , apply power it should glow red hot.

If its glowing red hot its doing is job

If like my19 j its still a bugger to start then do a compression test.

I found 2 pistons well down on compression......im going to strip it when i finish off my 200tdi conversion /rebuild. And investigate. I suspect worn out rings or split piston
 
Cheers. I may put the old glow plugs back in as it started better with them, which makes me think the cheapo ones maybe dont produce temp as quick etc, hence the recommendation of a decent brand. Id rather stick some decent plugs in to eliminate that before pulling things apart. I will be doing a compression test at some point, when I get a kit.
 
Ngk sre the plugs to have , do not be tempted by the cheap ngks on ebay etc , many/most are fakes. Get em from a reputable source.
 
Timed them today. Very cold start, glow plugs on for 15 secs, turnover for 5.5 seconds, then start, takes alot out of battery as you know on these older diesels. Ive cleaned up all the plug connectors (obviously it started straight away after running for 10 mins). Will report back in morn after a cold start.
 
That doesnt sound bad for a 19j ill be honest......

I ended up with a monster cca battery from a 6tonne truck in my 19j and id give it a couple of cycles of the heater plugs before i tried to turn it over.,..
 
NGk's sshould only be live for 6 seconds, you will destroy them leaving them on for longer. Battery size shouldn't matter so long as its a healthy battery.
 
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Cheers for the info - did a cold start today and it took 7 seconds on turning after 15 sec of heat. Battery was starting to die towards the end, but she is only used on short runs.
Popping battery on charge tonight, retest in AM. Short runs are the killers of batteries - i need to get out more for longer!!
 
Sooooo - took battery out, full charge and 10 secs heat and 2 sec start - it was obviously the battery running low. My new question is - how long do you need to run the engine to get it back up to full charge? I regular drive mine for short ten min journeys (or a bit less) which makes me think - its actually my usage of the car which is the problem!!!. How long does it take for the aternator to put back in what the starter motor took? In winter I have everything running (heater, lights, CCTV from 12 v lighter etc) I apreciate now this is the problem but just wondered. I use a 71 670 battery and 75 alt. Cheers
 
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Have you tried hand priming the lift pump it could be that is weak and diesel is not getting to the cylinder for a few seconds. I've had this problem with a couple of defenders honestly can't remember if it happened on my TD. Also had the problem on a pumpless system on a 1.6 td vw t25 . This was a split return pipe from injectors allowing diesel to drain back towards the tank.now I always check this before glowplugs.
 
Id probably be getting that battery tested.
I really wouldn't bother changing the oil that often either.
 

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