Mk8 Transit with seized glow plugs

[charleshardie]

Hello,
Has anyone dealt with completely seized glow plugs that can’t be removed? I took my van to the garage last week because I suspected the glow plugs needed replacing. However, the garage informed me that they’re stuck and could risk damage if they try to remove them.

They advised me, "You don’t need glow plugs unless it’s below freezing, so just see how it goes."

I’m considering taking it to a Ford dealership, but I’m worried about the potential costs involved.

I really want my van to run smoothly, which means I need functional glow plugs. How have others handled this situation? Is it really that challenging? Any advice would be appreciated!

[metalworker0]

the general advice here for the 2.2 _ (you dont say) is that the glow plugs aren't really needed unless you live in northern europe

so your garage gave you good advice ..
if its an ecoblue --- then i don#t know - someone else will advice if ecoblue


all the best.mark

[Siltu]

Greetings from Finland! About a year ago I decided to replase glow plugs to my 2.2 rwd Transit and off course the were seized and I snapped first one right away. There is not space to do about anything because inlet manifold is on the way and I ended up taking whole engine off. So that is really easy and fast job to do

[metalworker0]

He's not posted since .. so we do not know what his engine is , many come here without this info .. and dont update

Yes, in Finland you definitely need glow plugs.

all the best.mark

[Altransit]

He's not posted since .. so we do not know what his engine is , many come here without this info .. and dont update

I suspect that the OP was a spam bot, who has copied another post and later added an illegal signature link, (which I've now deleted) they don't always get noticed when they first post.

[metalworker0]

wow didn't know that was happening .. like how many times ive given long reples to these people

from now on anyone with 1 post gets a short question from me asking for more info as an answer . do you think that's best?

all the best.mark

[Altransit]

wow didn't know that was happening .. like how many times ive given long reples to these people

from now on anyone with 1 post gets a short question from me asking for more info as an answer . do you think that's best?

all the best. mark

It happens a lot, but they're usually spotted (and sent on their way) before first post approval, but sometimes they get approved, and then they add an 'illegal' signature when we're not looking

I would certainly hold off on the comprehensive replies to one post newbies, until they've interacted a little more, but that's my personal opinion

[ianhf]

I haven't had to do this yet on my Mk8 Transit but I recently replaced the glow plugs on my 2015 Defender which has the same 2.2 Puma engine. The access is even worse than the Transit and you can't do the job with a warm engine due to the removal of so much to get access to the glow plugs. I would highly recommend pre-treating with Liqui Moly Pro-line Injector and Glow Plug Dismantling Spray. I used this down the glow plug threads every day for a couple of weeks before attempting the removal. Continue to use the truck throughout this period so it cycles the heating/cooling of the head. I sprayed on both cold and hot engine. After dismantling everything to get access I really carefully used a torque wrench (set to the maximum removal torque) to attempt to undo the glow plugs without shearing. I had a great result and all four released before the torque limit.
Hope this might be of some help.

[Sam123]

To concur with the previous post, it is doable.

I did it on my 2015 RWD 2.2 recently. Agree that you'll be lucky if you can get all the crap out of the way in time to do it whilst the engine is still just about warm.

I sprayed Plusgas on mine for a couple of weeks ahead too. And to further avoid the risk, I bought the 'Welzh Werkzeug Impact Vibration Glow Plug Removal Gun 4121' tool, which is a low torque, high vibration air gun marketed specifically for removing glow plugs. And they all came out without snapping eventually.

I'll be selling the vibration gun on ebay when I get around to it if anyone is interested, cos presumably these plugs will last at least 5 years, and no point the tool sitting around doing nothing until next time.