arthur49 Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 A couple of weeks ago I got an intermittent 'check glow plugs' warning when starting from cold. Van ran perfectly. Started as normal, but I took it to dealer in Dundee. After 3 days in their workshop I got a call saying van was ready. Apparently glow plug 3 was faulty. I thought repair would be covered under warranty, but apparently not. 2 years only, and that expired on 22 March! I asked what I owed them. Well he obviously got a bit of a shock himself and said "we spent a fair bit of time on this" ..... "we had to discuss with Fiat Technical" ... "I need to check with the Manager in the morning" I felt I was being primed for a financial shock tomorrow!!! I am aware of Nick Fisher's advice on glow plugs ie rarely/never go wrong, and also with 'rusty junction' and I did fit an additional (decent) earth strap when we got the van. I'm reluctant to scrabble about at 'rusty junction' under the fuse box looking for faults/corrosion. My questions to prepare me for tomorrow 1. how long does it take to expose and remove the glow plugs 2. how are glow plugs tested 3. how much is a glow plug 4. why would a competent dealer need to phone Fiat on this - my simple logic would suggest that if the warning relates to glow plugs, thats the first thing to check? Hope Nick sees this ........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallii Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Sorry I am not Nick :-D Glow plugs are cheap, £20 will buy a set of four. Getting them out can be a long and difficult job, sometimes the head has to come off. On such a recent vehicle they should come out easily enough, note "should". If they come out easily they might take an hour to swap (there are some things to unbolt and get out of the way). Dealers will always charge for the hour and then a bit extra. Genuine parts will cost about twice the going rate. My guesstimate for cost is around £200, maybe more plus VAT, plus whatever else they can dream up! H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 These links may help but things aren't always as simple http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-install-diesel-glow-plugs#b http://www.wikihow.com/Test-Glow-Plugs Cost £10 each on ebay Perhaps may pay to phone Fiat yourself as so very close to warranty date sometimes they are understanding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 Thank you gents :-D :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 Well blow me. Dealer just phoned to say they've checked with Fiat and my warranty is 3 years so going to cost me nothing. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Agree with the above. Give Fiat a call. They may well help. Glow plug failure is indeed very rare. I have a 2011 in the workshop now that is showing the 'check glow plugs' message intermittently but i have checked them and they are all fine. This is more likely to be a wiring issue than anything else but nothing is impossible; perhaps you really did have a duff one! The ECU measures the resistance of the glow plugs and if this gets too high or low it might think that it has failed when it is actually working fine. I am not going to bother doing anything to this van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Oh! That's a good result. I started typing the above and had to go and speak to a customer before i could finish it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 arthur49 - 2016-04-19 12:41 PM Well blow me. Dealer just phoned to say they've checked with Fiat and my warranty is 3 years so going to cost me nothing. :-D Proper Job that's good news thanks for coming back and telling us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 Particular thanks to Nick for taking the trouble to read and respond - he's a working man Well I called late pm to pick up van (A M Philip, Dundee) and sure enough no charge, signed for warranty charge to go to Fiat, and drove off. No glow plug warning but I'll go cautious on that as it was intermittent before it went in. I'm assured no 3 was faulty. Van new March 2014, with 7000 miles on the clock. Fingers crossed :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 I realise this is an old thread which I initially started but in view of a thread posted here today on glow plugs on a Fiat Ducato, I thought I'd update our experience. All ended well for us, Fiat picked up the tab for replacing glow plug 3, and we were happy bunnies! HOWEVER, we traded the van in a few months later, and on the way to the dealer 100 miles away, the glow plug warning came on again. Van was behaving perfectly. We admitted the "fault" to the dealer who was neither up nor down about it. We left with our new van and I don't know the outcome of the resolution of second glow plug warning incident. Apologies for raising this again but I so hate queries being raised, members spending time answering, for the OP not to bother updating with outcome :-D :-D :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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