killing glow plugs?

[airsweden]

Hi, I have an 82 diesel vanagon that's eating glow plugs. I got this van about a year ago with a dead engine. I found a used rabbit 1.6 D engine for it and got it rolling again. It was starting hard so I put new glow plugs and relay in it and it started great after that. After about 6 months or 3000 miles though it was hard to start again. I put another set of glow plugs in and presto, starts right up. Now, only a couple months later it's the same thing... dead plugs. What could make them die so fast? Temp sensor? The yellow light on the dash board doesn't come on when starting a warm engine, only when cold. I can hear the relay click off shortly after yellow light goes out too.

[82vdub]

Are the ends of the plugs actually being eaten away, or is it that the glow plug is all physically there, but doesn't work? The glow plug that gets eaten away may be by the glow plug staying on after the engine starts (stays on too long, as there's a couple different glow length styles out there), or the injector is dripping on the glow plug after you turn the engine off. If the plugs are just plane old stopping to glow, cheap off brand plugs will not last much longer than 6 months. Bosch Duraterm plugs should last a lot longer. What brand have you been installing?

[bscutt]

I would try to rig up a test light straight to the glow plug bus to see if they are staying on too long or even all the time. You could by an aftermarket LED light or something cheap made to run off 12V and run it into the dash somewhere. X2 on what 82vdub says, I bought cheap aftermarker glow plugs a few years ago and the first one burned out in about a month, the second and third shortly thereafter. Went to duratherms after that and they are the only way to go.

[Quantum-man]

If plugs look intact, then also check that their supply voltage isn't too high; 11.5V better than 14V+ long term, especially if plugs on for relatively long time...