L300 in whitehorse, glow plug issue and now no start up

[Greenfaraway]

Hey all,

Looking for a hand with diagnoses. Just made the drive Victoria to Whitehorse. En route, glow plugs were turning on and off randomly while driving very regularly (or at least the click and light suggested so). However I had no option but to ignore it until Whitehorse. Once along the way the van did not want to start despite turning over, but then popped to life. Now it is turning over but not starting. Engine was plenty warm when it did not start.

Any thoughts would be awesome. It's camperized and it's my home as well as transport for work Also, if anyone knows a decent diesel mechanic in whitehorse I will be floating it down to a garage tomorrow. Need to get this sorted ASAP

Thanks all

[punkrawker]

hope you have a multimeter and some basic hand tools in the van with ya. id start looking at the grounds, loose ground is a very common problem and can mimic a lot of other troubles....reason I say that is if you have been driving on rough roads for awhile, they can loosen some nuts and bolts along the way and you would be surprised how little it takes for a ground to become loose this way sometimes, if you are concerned about the plugs and you have I believe a 10mm box end wrench and booster cables, you can pull the plug, insert the plug in the box end of the wrench, hook one end of the cables to the battery normally, hook one end to the wrench and the other to the top of the plug. if the plugs are good, they will be glowing (hence the name) red hot in about 5-15 seconds give or take. make sure they are 12v plugs NOT 6.5v plugs too, should be stamped on the plug near the top

hope this helps you and saves a hefty tow and/or repair bill.

[punkrawker]

also should had said about testing the plugs, put the ground on the end of the wrench and the positive to the top of the glow plug

[ChuckBlack]

How about your hydraulics?
How much oil pressure are you getting when cranking?
Is your glow plug relay clicking at all?
What is the voltage drop when cranking the engine over?
What's the Kl on your beast?
Perhaps its time for a valve adjustment!

[ChuckBlack]

Alright... Now I'm sure by now that you've toasted your glow plugs... They are ment to turn on and off during combustion. Hight heat and with compression ratio at 21:1 it will surely fry them real good. Check your glow plug selenoid, relay for corrosion and power source... Sometimes corrosion will jump start from pin 30 to which ever relay you have... You can also check your ignition system as it may have. Loose power that keep tripping the relay... But for sure if you drive back home and while driving these glow pug came one they are now fried right up! Pull them out and test!

[Greenfaraway]

Thanks so much for the replies, I've worrying a lot about this since it can be hard to find a mechanic who's willing to work on such things up in whitehorse. The starting issue may have been unrelated, cleaning up wiring over the pump seems to have cleared up starting but glow plugs still come on intermittently with no particular pattern. Checked plugs and they are not burnt out. They normally turn right back off after turning on. Coombs suggested checking the glow plug ECU but mechanic is concerned about messing with it lest he make the problem worse. I'm currently living out of my van and can't take a ton of risk. I think I may bet on the problem being the ECU order a replacement part.

Is replacing or repairing the ECU really risky business for a mechanic who's not so confident with it?
The ECU is behind the panel to lower driver seat belt. Where is the glow plug relay? Behind seat in the lower panel I believe, but where specifically? Maybe I could check for obvious corrosion.

I appreciate everyones help a lot. Thanks!

[Greenfaraway]

oh and I don't have answers to many of those questions chuck black I'm not particularly mechanically inclined it a 92 delica exceed with 230k on it. Yes the relay is clicking every time. Works as it should on start up consistently, but also clicking on/off now and again while driving.... an annoying reminder that I need to sort this issue out! I got a full check up from coombs before I left and think the van is in good repair but the glow plug issue didn't start until I was 2000km north.

[nxski]

Replacing the ECU is a plug and play type of scenario, it's very easy, but it requires small hands. I'm selling a refurbished one, I just need to find out where it went since I moved a few things around. You can determine if the ecu is the issue by bypassing it. Just connect a wire directly from the battery to the glowplugs and hold it there for 10-15 seconds, then crank. If all the glowplugs are good, the van will start right up, if they're not, replace them and try again. You can also remove the ECU entirely and put in a manual switch. If your van was running on the 6V system, this would mean you could replace with 12V and give it a little bit more heat when you're trying to start in cold temperatures.

[FalcoColumbarius]

... Coombs suggested checking the glow plug ECU but mechanic is concerned about messing with it lest he make the problem worse. ...

Go to Delica Canada Technical/L300 Dedicated Category Reference Forum/The Engine & Engine Electrical/Regarding the ECU.

Morganiser is brilliant and this may be of use to you. I'd say the primary reason the manual glowplug switch became popular is because the replacement option was some $800.00. The thing is ~ the problem is often a burnt out $1.49 transistor or something. One guy on this forum took his ECU to a TV repair guy who fixed it for a nominal fee. Hope this helps.

Falco.