My 190D is having a tough time starting. Originally I thought it was caused by air in the fuel linefrom the leaky diesel thermostat, so that was changed. Car has a new battery and glow plug relay. When the car finally does come on, the glow plug indicator lamp is slightly lit. And when I hit the brake pedal the light goes out. Does that indicate it needs new glow plugs?

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try as soon as I locate an Ohm meter.

 

Ok, instead of buying an ohm meter, I just replaced the plugs. I still would have had to remove the intake manifold to test them. Upon first start, the car started immediately after the install, which was in fairly cold weather!

Buta day lateras I was leaving a friend's house after their New Year's party, the car's engine wouldn't even turn over. Using some starting fluid I got it home, let it sit over night, and the same thing happened again. I noticed that the glow plug light doesn't come on when the key is in position 2 also.

 

Thanks for the help. Glow plugs did the trick, but the reason why the GP indicator lamp wasn't coming on was because the GP relay fuse is fried to hell and no electricity was circulating

So this hard starting BSends tommorow as soon as I buy that ****

 

On one of the other boards that I follow, many diesel owners suggest keeping a couple spare "strip fuses" for the glow plug controller, just as a precaution.

As said there, it's annoying to have to wait on a tow for the cost of a $0.30 fuse being blown!


As far as testing the glow plugs goes, you can test them from the controller end of the wiring, within about 1/10th of an ohm difference.

 

I tested each glow plug removed and all the new ones work after blowing the fuse again. So today I've got to test each wire individually and the relay to track down a short.