Miss Fire......

[Terra Dog]

Hi all, i'm just wondering whether glo plugs stay on all the time. The reason I ask this is because I replaced my head gasket a few months ago and whilst I was scraping the head in order to remove the old gasket, I caught one of the glo plugs and damaged it.

Just lately, 2 or 3 months after the damage was done to the plug it has started to sort of miss fire on tick over. But still pulls like a train at all other times when driving. Tick over sits at about 600 RPM. Then tonite when driving home in traffic and when I pulled up I noticed it was blowing smoke, it was made worse by the car headlights showing up the smoke so this may be normal. Or could it be unburnt fuel in one of the cylinders?

Any sugestions as to what it could be are welcome.

Thanks Terra Dog.

[western]

glow plugs should only be live [on] when you start & hld the key/ign to heat them or if it's a tdi when the timer relay is operating.

seeing exhaust in headlights at night in cooler temps is nothing to worry about, the exhaust is fairly warm when it exits the engine/exhaust pipe, it's only a problem if there is lots of smoke either black or grey/white.

[Terra Dog]

So any ideas what the miss fire is all about then. From what I can gather it's only 1 maybe 2 cylinders doing it on tickover?

When the engine is revved it's completly normal with no miss fire.

[western]

have a look/work through this diesel fault diagnosis chart

diesel fault diagnosis chart.pdf

[Terra Dog]

OK i'll have a look, cheers.

[Terra Dog]

I Think i'll start off by changing the fuel filter and see how it goes. It's recently had a fuel pump and lift pump. The fuel pump was second hand though.

[cackshifter]

I'd also make sure your injectors are sealing properly to the head; maybe one has worked loose if they were recently disturbed. It doesn't take much to upset it at tickover, and it causes a lot of underbonnet smoke.

Nigel