Bongo Fury

Hello,
I read Haydn has a switch to turn off the glow plugs.
I put 4 new Blueprint ones in about 2 years ago and, a few days ago and following lumpy starting and running for the first few seconds, found 3 were duff. I've since replaced them and all is fine.
However, and unlike most diesels, the plugs stay on for a long time. I have a light on the dash that tells me when power is going to the glow plugs:-



I've had this for several months and note the plugs remain on for around 2 miles from a cold engine and about 5 seconds for a warm engine. Also, the plugs may initially go off and then come back on again shortly after but this is rare. Given that with 3 duff plugs, a cold engine would run fine after a few seconds, I reckon I could install a switch to help preserve the plugs (and maybe the plug relays which can cause problems)

I'm writing this post for 3 reasons

- Firstly, to draw other folks attention to this potentially useful and penny saving mod.

- Secondly, is there an alternative wire in which to insert the switch rather than by the relay itself. I ask this as I'd sooner find one in the cab area if possible. I read the temp sender on the head will do this but also turns the fans on so that's no good.

-Finally, I hear the glow plugs were designed to stay on for so long so as to reduce pollution in Japanese cities. As this problem is now overcome by moving the whole vehicle to Somerset, I can't see any reason not to try the mod but I welcome advice?

The only problem with doing this useful mod is :- remembering to turn them back on the next day.!!

Why do yours stay on so long?

Mine don't, once the light goes out it starts and runs and the light stays out.

My glowplugs are now 172,000 miles old.

Tony x wrote:Hello,
I read Haydn has a switch to turn off the glow plugs.
I put 4 new Blueprint ones in about 2 years ago and, a few days ago and following lumpy starting and running for the first few seconds, found 3 were duff. I've since replaced them and all is fine.
However, and unlike most diesels, the plugs stay on for a long time. I have a light on the dash that tells me when power is going to the glow plugs:-



I've had this for several months and note the plugs remain on for around 2 miles from a cold engine and about 5 seconds for a warm engine. Also, the plugs may initially go off and then come back on again shortly after but this is rare. Given that with 3 duff plugs, a cold engine would run fine after a few seconds, I reckon I could install a switch to help preserve the plugs (and maybe the plug relays which can cause problems)

I'm writing this post for 3 reasons

- Firstly, to draw other folks attention to this potentially useful and penny saving mod.

- Secondly, is there an alternative wire in which to insert the switch rather than by the relay itself. I ask this as I'd sooner find one in the cab area if possible. I read the temp sender on the head will do this but also turns the fans on so that's no good.

-Finally, I hear the glow plugs were designed to stay on for so long so as to reduce pollution in Japanese cities. As this problem is now overcome by moving the whole vehicle to Somerset, I can't see any reason not to try the mod but I welcome advice?

Do You not want to reduce the Pollution in Somerset???.

Your Blueprint heaters would still have been under guarantee, you could have had a full refund.

Good Luck.

scanner wrote:
Why do yours stay on so long?

Mine don't, once the light goes out it starts and runs and the light stays out.

My glowplugs are now 172,000 miles old.

The light has no relevance to the plug activity.......The relay/plugs cycle on/off until certain revs/temps are achieved.

haydn callow wrote:

scanner wrote:
Why do yours stay on so long?

Mine don't, once the light goes out it starts and runs and the light stays out.

My glowplugs are now 172,000 miles old.

The light has no relevance to the plug activity.......The relay/plugs cycle on/off until certain revs/temps are achieved.

I think the light in question is a modification (not standard) wired directly to the heater rail /relay giving a condition of the activity of the heater plugs.

Ah! Got it!

rita wrote:

Tony x wrote:Hello,
I read Haydn has a switch to turn off the glow plugs.
I put 4 new Blueprint ones in about 2 years ago and, a few days ago and following lumpy starting and running for the first few seconds, found 3 were duff. I've since replaced them and all is fine.
However, and unlike most diesels, the plugs stay on for a long time. I have a light on the dash that tells me when power is going to the glow plugs:-



I've had this for several months and note the plugs remain on for around 2 miles from a cold engine and about 5 seconds for a warm engine. Also, the plugs may initially go off and then come back on again shortly after but this is rare. Given that with 3 duff plugs, a cold engine would run fine after a few seconds, I reckon I could install a switch to help preserve the plugs (and maybe the plug relays which can cause problems)

I'm writing this post for 3 reasons

- Firstly, to draw other folks attention to this potentially useful and penny saving mod.

- Secondly, is there an alternative wire in which to insert the switch rather than by the relay itself. I ask this as I'd sooner find one in the cab area if possible. I read the temp sender on the head will do this but also turns the fans on so that's no good.

-Finally, I hear the glow plugs were designed to stay on for so long so as to reduce pollution in Japanese cities. As this problem is now overcome by moving the whole vehicle to Somerset, I can't see any reason not to try the mod but I welcome advice?

Do You not want to reduce the Pollution in Somerset???.

Your Blueprint heaters would still have been under guarantee, you could have had a full refund.

Good Luck.

I think he was humorous, but I get his point: it's about concentrations of people and concentration of pollutant. The implications of that either way are easy to work out.

Personally I'd just take out the "non-standard" wiring and just let the glowplugs get on with doing the job they were designed to do and stop worrying about it.

I've done that for 7 years now.

Thanks for the replies.
To answer and comment on a few points, the green light is an indicator that power is going to the glow plug rail, mainly because I had some (as it turns out, unfounded) concerns about the glow plug relay.

In regards to your comment Haydn about remembering to turn the plugs on, I did wonder if maybe a timed relay would be the answer, perhaps 30 seconds from turning the ignition on would do.

I really don't want to cause pollution anywhere - this is the most likely reason to prevent me putting in a switch or relay although I suspect turning the plugs off won't produce much extra and, if this is the case, I'll go ahead.

I'm not worried about the plugs as such, I just want reliability and 2 years from a good make (Blueprint) is not good and expensive. I can see no reason to remove the none standard wiring as it does no harm and may prove very useful.

I think I'll go ahead and let you know how I've got on another two years down the line. Hopefully I'll report a better survival rate than one in four.

I guess if I use a timed relay, there's no need to look for a wire in the cab that controls the plugs,

Cheers

NGK plugs seem to have a very good lifespan so maybe spend an extra few pounds and use ones that are better suited to the job. I had a set that lasted well over 6 years which was about inline with the recommended replacement schedule of 50,000 km / 30,000 miles.

Cheers Simon - this is the route I'll take as I've looked up the pollution you get when you turn them off early and it's not negligible.
Bit of a waste of a post really....

adding to population knowledge is not a waste of a post.
I've found it interesting and untill the Bongo (4x4 97) had several vag oil burners with no replacement plug in 100000miles,
The peugot i had for 3-4 years eat more plugs than I have had hot dinners. (soon learned wip em out and use a battery on the bench and watch them glow (or not)) even expensive plugs, never owned a peugot since.

I've had a number of diesels over the years including Peugeot, Honda, Mazda and Volvo. Between that lot I've driven over 300,000 miles and not changed a single glowplug. My current Volvo has just ticked over 220,000 miles and that is still on the original set. I think all the non-Bongo vehicles have been common rail diesels which tend to start on first turn of the key and the plugs stay on for much shorter time.

simon
my peugot was a 96 306 pre common rail and for various reasons I cant imagine buying another peugot .
We who are in a time warp understand technology changes and sometimes need to understand what that means to us.
eg when Lead free petrol hit the fuel stations
the feeling was
we could lo longer ride our Commandos let alone any another Norton or classic car.
Now we have low sulphur fuels. do we need to add "additives"
"todays" vehicles are always designed to deal with "todays" fuel
or is it the other way around remember 5* eco legislation has happened since then.

No idea how you deal with upper cylinder lubrication with LPG