help..glowplugs won't work anymore!!

[surferboy]

Hey folks, went to sombrio surfing last tuesday and the logging road part that leads to the parking lot at the bottom was pretty rough, lots of pot holes and i tend to drive down it pretty fast, anyways the battery probably took a good shakin' as it is not secured properly and doesn't fill the whole battery compartment as i only have one.. the van had no problem up until yesterday, drove it find all day, and after dinner, tryed to start it and noticed that the glowplugs didn't clic..the van finnaly started after awhile of turning over, but of course, without the glowplugs doing their job, a huge puff of smoke came out of the exhaust.. anyways could not figure out for the life of me why they would all of a sudden stop working...
waited till this morning, tried to start the van up,... same bullshit! so lifted up the engine cover and found out that a connection on the positive post of the batterry worked itself off of the clamp.. so i thought.. bingo, heres the problem, but even after reconnecting everything, still nothing from the glowplugs after i turn the key over... everything else works find.. what the hell, any ideas? all the garage shops in town where closed and Glenn at coombs country auto which knows my van really well is out of the country till the end of the month.. any hints would help, should i go get a 12V. test lamp and check each glow plugs?...

[rdub]

i heard you can hot wire from the battery to the glow plugs but im not totally sure how ,i think you need to go to the one with the exsisting wire,please dont quote me on that im new to the diesel department and am learning more buy asking too!

[MardyDelica]

Hi,Surferboy,
If you dont have a click, that means your ECU glow plug circuit board is gone, need to fix it, its common on this delica , i did fix many of this & its always the ECU diode that is burn or sometime
the continiuty of this ECU board is cut. try to find any good electrician in your area who knows how to fix the electronoc board not hard to fix its like the mother board for your computer .
after that your fine, dont be surprice that this happen to you, this is a common problem with this delica, just the ages of the vehicle & its also a electronic component o.k. its frustrating but try this & it will fix your problem, do not hot wire it direct to glow plug, you might burn the glow plug. try this first o.k.
hope this help;
Cheers,
Mardy

[EricN]

Mine started doing the same thing too. I was convinced it was the relay but I just had surgery on my back and cant really look at it BUT now you got me thinking. It could just be a coincidence but I was also playing around in the battery compartment (had the battery out to change some hose routing on the WVO system) when the problem started. I am dying to get well enough to go outside and check all those goofy little connectors they stuffed under there and make sure they are working properly and none of the fusible links are disconnected/broken/blown.
If you have a multimeter, test the voltage on both sides of those connectors, make sure it is the same. Either way, let me know what you find.

[marsgal42]

I'm just about to reinstall the glowplug board in my Delica. The usual symptoms: no click, no glowplugs. Funny how it messes you up when you are expecting things to happen, and they don't.

I replaced two electrolytic capacitors that had leaked, and repaired two traces on the board that the electrolytic gunk had corroded through. The board shows signs of past rework, but I suspect it might have been revised by Mitsubishi themselves during manufacture.

...laura

[surferboy]

Wow, good info folks, but sure sounds like chinese to me. I am not even sure where this diode or electronic board is located or what to look for.. should i call a mechanic? an electrician? how much does this problem cost to fix and how often does it happend? should i try to start my van anyways in the mean time or is it bad for the engine? anybody in victoria that knows what to look for or how to fix this problem, please PM me if you want to help...
I just don't know anything about circuit boards or that kind of electronic, i haven't tryed to start the van since friday and i am kind of stuck, i need my vehicle..... Thanks everyone...

[EricN]

I have to admit I know very little about diesels but as far as I can tell, this is how our glow system works. Turn on key, the glow plugs get 12v for a few seconds to quickly heat them up. As you crank, there is still power there. I am not sure if it is 12v still or if it is less. As it is warming up, the plugs still get power but at less voltage (I think 6volts). I am guessing, but I dont think it will start from cold if you have no power to the glowplugs at all. So my diagnosis on mine, which is all in my head and not confirmed on the truck, during cranking, there is power to the glowplugs to make it start. You just have to keep cranking to get them hot enough. Will it do any harm? I hope not because my wife is still driving ours right now. I say if you need it, drive it, but I suspect it will get really bad when the weather gets really cold to the point it wouldnt even start, but again, I am guessing.
I would still look in the battery compartment and pull/push/wiggle all those little connectors.

[marsgal42]

I reinstalled the controller board (inside the gold-coloured housing in the B pillar) in Gumdrop:

Reinstalling the glowplug controller.

Installation.jpg (108.68 KiB) Viewed 8963 times

and she roared back to life after the expected two clicks.

Removing and reinstalling the controller just requires a certain amount of dexterity, as well as 10 and 17mm sockets. Repairing the controller requires some electronics background. If you don't know what you're doing, ask a mechanic. This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime repair - fresh new capacitors should be good for at least another 15 years. I know what I was quoted for the repair, but your mechanic may quote something different, and I ended up doing it myself anyway.

Diesel engines work by sucking in air, compressing it so it gets hot, then squirting in fuel to initiate combustion. When the engine is cold the heat of compression is dissipated in the engine, and it never gets hot enough for combustion. The glow plugs guarantee a small area of the combustion chamber that is hot enough for combustion. With the relatively mild weather at the moment you could probably start your Delica without the glow plugs (crank enough until things get warm inside), though it will be hard on the starter and battery. The controller gives the glow plugs lots of current at first, then a smaller amount while the engine is cranking. It may continue supplying current to the glow plugs for a few seconds after the engine starts. It all depends on the air and engine temperature.

If the Mitsubishi engineers thought they could do without the glow plugs (and save a few yen at manufacture), they would have deleted them and the fancy controller that makes them go. They are there for a reason.

...laura

[surferboy]

Thanks Laura, sounds like you know your stuff, an idea of how much i should expect it to cost me would be great so i know that they are not taking me for a ride (the mechanics) Unfortunatelly, i can't open your attachment for some reason, all i see is a small square with an X in it.. tried right cliking it but no luck... i could probably take that box appart myself, but after that, once open, i doubt i would know what to do...I guess i will have to wait untill tomorow when the shops open up to get it fixed, i will try starting the van by cranking it over until it starts for now...hope it's not too bad for gumming up the combustion chamber with unburnt diesel...Cheers!

[Schwa]

Use Firefox or some browser other than Microsoft Internet Explorer to see the pictures, the board software doesn't seem to like IE.

[MardyDelica]

Hi, as i said before in other glow plug fix topic, its located in the driver side center pilar under the seatbelt as laura finally find it,
you just need to find a right person who knows about electronic board, after that its easy.
youll get it its just need time & patient.
cheers;
Mardy

[marsgal42]

I am being slightly economical with information, not to be obnoxious, but because I cannot possibly accept responsibility for repair costs or damage to your Delica. Sorry.

While anybody can remove and replace the glowplug controller, the repairs to the electronics are technically skilled work.

...laura

[jrman]

I think you did a great job Laura, have downloaded photo for future reference to know where the board is. We can all save alot of time and money just being able to re & re this kind of thing and finding the item in question is more than half the battle most of the time. Another great post and tks to everyone.

[surferboy]

hi everyone, just got my van back yesterday, marygold services in Victoria did the front brake rotors and bearings re-pack and trouble-shooted what was wrong with my glow-plugs circuits... turns out that it was pretty much the same problem that Laura had... two hours of troubleshooting(160$) plus 80$ to fix what was a capacitor and some broken tracks on the board from the control box... apparently the vibrations from the van causes the fragile components in the control box to loosen up, overheat and eventually brake... i'm broke but happy to have had the problem fix, got my van back now, time to sink in a thousand bucks worth of tires!! I'm glad i found someone in Victoria that knows how to work on these vans and is not affraid to look at them, the guy's name is Ray and so far seems to be a good guy to get stuff done right on delicas and other right hand drive imports... Hope the info might help people that may have the same problem with their vans in the future...Cheers and thanks to everyone that attempted to help...

[MardyDelica]

its good that you finally fixed the glow plug ECU.
cheers
Mardy