525 TDS Glowplug Relay? Starting problem.

[Tony777]

Hi Everybody, I have an electrical problem with my 525 TDS Touring. When I try to start it, the glowplug light comes on for about 10 seconds and then goes out as it should. The car will not start. The next thing I tried was new glowplugs. Turn the key, wait for the light to go off and guess what. IT STILL WON'T START!
I tested the electric feed to the glowplugs and it's dead. I have checked the fuses ( unless there's a hidden one ).
Has anybody got any ideas? Where is the glow plug controller? Also, when I turn the ignition on, the windscreen wipers operate once ( delay wipe ) . I am getting a bit fed up with this now.
Thanks for reading this, Tony

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

Lift bonnet,(changed the filter lately?) give the glowplugs one burst,turn over and watch clear pipe from filter to pump,if air in it,first change filter,wet seal(check central one is in head) and screw on tight.(fill filter beforehand with fuel treatment and diesel). Give the glowplugs at least five bursts,park the car on the level with at least half a tank, it should go??!! In the above are most of the things that can go wrong,if you have left the car and are in the south UK then you may have "bugs" in the tank,like me.Mine starts first thing warm or very cold but is a bitch otherwise,pump changed and everything bar the tank until I checked the fuel and found it black, cleaned once but forgot lines so its time to do it again.............

[Tony777]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have diesel at the injectors. I have put a test light onto a glowplug and then got my wife to turn the ignition on so the glowplug indicator light comes on, but there is no power to the glowplug at all

[Ferret]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have diesel at the injectors. I have put a test light onto a glowplug and then got my wife to turn the ignition on so the glowplug indicator light comes on, but there is no power to the glowplug at all

Grab yourself a jumplead - preferably a normal car jump start one.
Carefully clip one end to the head of a glow plug
Get an assistant in the car ready to crank it over
Connect the other end of the jump lead to the remote jump start point under the bonnet - it'll spark badly at 80 ish amps, but so long as your jump lead at the other end is touching ONLY the electrical glow connection you'll be fine.
Count to 10 and then try cranking the car.

As Barney rightly says, check the clear hose between the filter and injection pump.

If the tank's under 50% and the injection pump is de-primed - it can take upto about 2 minutes of cranking to get the car to start. Check your injector leak-back hoses for cracks, and there's various other bits that can cause it to de-prime.

When did it last run?


Your glow plug relay is in the E-box on the turbo side of the engine - it's the unit between all the ECUs with the bigger wires running to/from.

[Tiger]

If there is no power to the glow plug, then you need to check the glow plug relay main feed cable fuse... long word.

The glow plug relay has a thick positive wire... and this wire has its own fuse too... should be in engine compartment... I would say it is about 10 gauge.

[Ferret]

If there is no power to the glow plug, then you need to check the glow plug relay main feed cable fuse... long word.

The glow plug relay has a thick positive wire... and this wire has its own fuse too... should be in engine compartment... I would say it is about 10 gauge.

You can actually see the glow plug fuse in the picture I posted - it's the little bar with two phillips screws at each end, next component along from the glow plug relay.

[Tony777]

Thanks for the advice, I did try the jump lead trick and it did start ok. Without putting a feed to it, I have to turn it over for at least a minute before it starts firing up.
I bought the car a couple of weeks ago, ( I already have a 525 TD saloon) but I wanted a tourer TDS with all the toys. I bought it thinking it was the pump in the fuel tank that was faulty, changed it and still the same problem. I'll have a look at the glowplug controller now and make sure there is a feed to it and to the glowplugs.
Thanks,
Tony

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

When you changed the pump, was it covered in black goo?? One other thing to look at closely is the fuse box under the rear passenger seat, take alll the fuses out and clean/vaseline them, a lot of things will work better! Seems to be a UK disease.

[Tony777]

Hi there, the pump was fairly clean but the filter at the bottom had a little bit of crud on it. I have checked the fuses and sprayed it with electrical spray. I found the glowplug controller and found the big fuse blown. Hopefully this will solve the problem, fingers crossed.
Thanks,
Tony

[Tony777]

Hi there, I checked the fuse and it was blown. I'll get another one tommorrow and hopefully, that will solve most of my problems. When I bought the car, I found No.1 glowplug lead hanging off and a nut from the inlet manifold possibly shorting No. 6 glowplug out.
Thanks for your advice,
Tony.
Just got to sort the wingscreen wipers out next!!