mweiner Report post Posted August 9, 2017 37 minutes ago, kaypsmith said: Mark, I know about German engineering pretty well also, Daimler has a plant 30 miles from where I live. I have many friends who work there, the training program is impeccable, no one is allowed to turn a bolt on the assembly line without having been thoroughly trained, most of them are flown to Germany for their training. The plant was first put opened to build the M class, then 15 years later doubled in size to start producing a pickup truck line, to date still no pickup trucks have rolled, several prototypes, but none have been able to cut the muster so far. Thanks, aside from these little nuisance issues, the van drives beautifully, and has plenty of power.. my year's model says 190 hp and 325 torque. Remember, I'm only half the size of most of you. Do you have any opinion on the glow plugs issue I raised? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kaypsmith Report post Posted August 9, 2017 Not really an opinion, glow plugs are still used in many of the smaller diesel engines, they are no more than a plug that preheats the cylinders to make the engine start in cool and cold conditions, no other function. Like anything mechanical/electrical, it is destined to fail someday, meaning that it is a wear item. If overused it will fail sooner, not knowing your exact vehicle, whether it is an automatic feature, or a human engaged feature, may contribute to the longevity of these items. We have a skid steer loader, and two commercial zero turn mowers with Kubota diesels on all three, all have glow plugs on them that are human engaged, if it's cool weather, we preheat always, if warmer weather, we allow the engine to turn over two times, if it doesn't start within the two turns, the glow plugs are engaged for 15 seconds. One of the mowers is 30 years old, one 18, and the loader is 18, all 4 cylinder, have not replaced a glow plug in any of these yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mweiner Report post Posted August 9, 2017 43 minutes ago, kaypsmith said: Not really an opinion, glow plugs are still used in many of the smaller diesel engines, they are no more than a plug that preheats the cylinders to make the engine start in cool and cold conditions, no other function. Like anything mechanical/electrical, it is destined to fail someday, meaning that it is a wear item. If overused it will fail sooner, not knowing your exact vehicle, whether it is an automatic feature, or a human engaged feature, may contribute to the longevity of these items. We have a skid steer loader, and two commercial zero turn mowers with Kubota diesels on all three, all have glow plugs on them that are human engaged, if it's cool weather, we preheat always, if warmer weather, we allow the engine to turn over two times, if it doesn't start within the two turns, the glow plugs are engaged for 15 seconds. One of the mowers is 30 years old, one 18, and the loader is 18, all 4 cylinder, have not replaced a glow plug in any of these yet. Kay,. Just found this.... https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=743 Apparently, from other threads, the glow plugs not only warm up the cylinders on the Mercedes Benz 3 litre diesel, but, they are an integral part of the engine running and fuel economy.. so, if you have malfunctioning plugs, it's possible to have an engine misfire, reduced performance or poor fuel economy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mweiner Report post Posted August 9, 2017 My question is could the previous, original owners, have mistreated the glow plugs by not starting properly? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jleamont Report post Posted August 9, 2017 No, it would have little effect on their life expectancy. Those are prone to failure on those engines, along with the glow plug controller. Be thankful its not the inline engine, those seize/weld them selves into the head. According to the dealer the cylinder head has to be pulled 90% of the time to drill them out . I got lucky on the ones I replaced....well if you call 12 hours of fighting it so I didn't have to pull the cylinder head lucky . When you take it in for service, ask them to pull the wheel covers inspect the wheels for cracks, common to see them fail, especially when its heavy in an RV application. Everything else will illuminate the engine light and give you a warning, wheels do not. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kaypsmith Report post Posted August 9, 2017 A diesel is a diesel is a diesel, as stated they do nothing more than make for an easier start, or a possible no start in really cold conditions without them. If one were cracked causing a low combustion condition, yes it would cause a problem with that cylinder. The only diesel motor that I have had contact with in over sixty years that used any form of electronics in the actual firing of the cylinder was a Galion motorgrader that was 20 years old in the mid 70's, it was six cylinder, had a two gallon gas tank, and an 80 gallon diesel tank. There was a compression release on that engine, 6 spark plugs "not glow plugs", it actually started on gasoline, we had to run the engine until the oil pressure came up to the minimum pressure, the engine sounded like a six cylinder Chevrolet at this point. Once everything was right for changeover, we moved the compression lever to high, diesel took over and gasoline went away. That beast sounded like a D8 Caterpillar running at that point. those were the days. By the way, I owned a 190D 1966 model Mercedes Benz, and put over three hundred thousand miles on that car. Four cylinder and got 30 miles per gallon, up hill down hill, town or country, running air conditioner or not, I had a little silver device on the dash with holes in it so you could see a wire that actually heated and turned a nice warm glow to tell when the glow plugs were ready to start the engine. And yes those were the days before all the new sensors that tell the engine and the mechanic whether to go or not. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
