Glow plug - can they short out??

[Bally123]

Started the van tonight and was rewarded with flashing dash lights, poor cranking and a plume of smoke from under the bonnet.
Found a wire completely burnt through adjacent to the fuse box. Fortunately no fire

Anyway I have traced it to the main supply to the glow plug relay, the cabling to the glow plugs looks OK so I am figuring a glow plug has shorted to earth, my question is is this common?

Anybody experienced similar problems?

Will have a more in depth look in the daylight tomorrow, why does this sort of shite always happen on a bank holiday weekend!!

Cheers...

[mjsroofing]

Yes I believe this is comman.

[v8dave]

Not a problem I've had but it has been a topic on here before, a little search will find you something.
Earlier mk6 I assume, late TDCi has the link at the battery.

[jay]

you will find in the UKit will start no problem even down to minus 10

[ake]

Started the van tonight and was rewarded with flashing dash lights, poor cranking and a plume of smoke from under the bonnet.
Found a wire completely burnt through adjacent to the fuse box. Fortunately no fire

Anyway I have traced it to the main supply to the glow plug relay, the cabling to the glow plugs looks OK so I am figuring a glow plug has shorted to earth, my question is is this common?

Anybody experienced similar problems?

Will have a more in depth look in the daylight tomorrow, why does this sort of shite always happen on a bank holiday weekend!!

Cheers...

Yes, it's very common, the burnt wire, is designed to do just that, it's the fusible link, so no need to worry!

You may well find that your van will start fine without glowplugs, if so you can leave it as is.

[mjsroofing]

50 50 if van starts ok.

My old mk6 always started fine and I think it still does (ask Jay ) never had a new heater plug and its done over 190k,

My m8s mk7 doesn't like it at all, lumpy and smokes for five minutes, ids says glow plug fault so it's def o that.

Good luck.

[jay]

yep mine started the other day at minus 2 and did a few weeks ago start no problem at minus 4 even with a dieing battery still fired up...all you will get is a bit of diesel smoke from exhaust when its really cold and it might spin over a few more times..

[mjsroofing]

yep mine started the other day at minus 2 and did a few weeks ago start no problem at minus 4 even with a dieing battery still fired up...all you will get is a bit of diesel smoke from exhaust when its really cold and it might spin over a few more times..

She's a good old truck.