Removal of Intake Manifold to Access Glow Plugs

Sure you wanna give it a go?

I think this is one of the few jobs I'd pay a garage to do.

Yeah, why not.

I've done various things in the past to the car - installed Bluetooth, fitted cruise control, stuff like that. I'm relatively mechanically minded, just like to have advice and don't like spending money at the garage when I'm competent enough to do the job myself.

Lippo said:

Yeah, why not.

I've done various things in the past to the car - installed Bluetooth, fitted cruise control, stuff like that. I'm relatively mechanically minded, just like to have advice and don't like spending money at the garage when I'm competent enough to do the job myself.

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I'm the same. Have rebuild motorbikes from nuts and bolts. Not much scares me.

Glow plugs is one of the things that scares me lol.

Sorry can't help with the original question though.

Today my car has gone into the garage for the glow plugs to be replaced. Which seemed to be an easy job has now gotten much larger. They were unable to undo the plugs as they have seized and as such when attempting to remove have broken.

They are now having to drill these out at great expense to me!

I would strongly advise that you let a garage tackle the plugs

Funny i was literally watching glow plug video's on YouTube just now for a 5 series..

Check it out if you want an idea on how to remove the manifold.. It's quite a myth definitely a scary job as others have mentioned.

willgladwell said:

They are now having to drill these out at great expense to me!

I would strongly advise that you let a garage tackle the plugs

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It's such a shame as well mate that you're having to drill them out. That's a 50/50 job as well so much stress..

Guess you just gotta be very gently and patient with this job.. Lube it up a couple times over night if anything lol

It's such a shame as well mate that you're having to drill them out. That's a 50/50 job as well so much stress..

Guess you just gotta be very gently and patient with this job.. Lube it up a couple times over night if anything lol

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The garage told me its 60/40 whether they will be able to drill them out in situ

If they fail they will have to take the head off and send to a machine shop

Just all sounds like its going to cost me a fortune but the car was reporting failure on 2 of the plugs so I have no option but to go with it

Yeah it can happen.. A lot of hassle indeed.. Quite off putting and I imagine it will get costly if they damage the threads or so.

I guess the best approach is just to take lots of caution with this job. Something mechanics probably wouldn't do..

Numerous soaks with a lubricant over night perhaps..

Get the engine very very hot before attempting

And remove them very gently.

I think its good to rule out the glow plug regulator before anything though that could be the problem on some occasions before attempting glow plugs.

I was hoping someone would be able to tell me if it is as simple as removing the 5 bolts that hold the manifold on? I get the issue with the glow plug removal - I'll be VERY careful!

The inlet manifold itself isn't any hardship, only nuts and bolts.

Thanks Marco - so I take it the reluctance for the job is the chance of breaking the glow plugs in situ?

Yup, basically.

They're actually very low torque, so if you need to wail on them it's time to get concerned. Lots of Plus Gas, then some more. Then come back to them the following morning!

Thanks Marco.

Given the risks - why bother ?

I read recently that for a modern direct injection engine the glow plugs are mainly about emissions during the start and warm up period - excepting really really cold starts of course.

I had a M47 engined 3 series I took from 120 to about 260k miles on the original glow plugs without apparent issue.

My M47 was showing error codes for 2 plugs at 90k, so I suspect yours might not have been original?

They are indeed glowing for quite a whole now for emissions, on until 70c or something similar.

Anish1993 said:

Numerous soaks with a lubricant over night perhaps..
Get the engine very very hot before attempting
And remove them very gently.

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All good advice. Also ensure that you have a good quality, snug-fitting long socket, and suitable extension bars & joints that allow you to apply torque in direct line with the glowplug thread. If you do all of this, most of the time a diesel glowplug will come out easily enough. And then it's £10 or so for a replacement, and you can feel smug. But everyone has a story about seized glowplugs, and costly engineering works to get them pulled or drilled. Worst case is snapping them off or stripping the thread.

If it feels like it's welded in place, you might want to just shrug and run on 3 glowplugs - that's enough for a cold start outside the Arctic circle.

Thanks for the advice. If there's any problem witha glow plug, I'll leave it in place.

As for why, I did read a couple of glow plug errors some time back so think that at least 2 will need changing. Starting is also slightly lumpy, which I'm putting down to damaged/old glow plugs.

I've bought 4 Bosch plugs for £40 so it's not going to break the bank.

I've also read that they can assist the stop/start function, which has fallen by the wayside over the last few months as the battery gets older.

Lippo said:

Thanks for the advice. If there's any problem witha glow plug, I'll leave it in place.

As for why, I did read a couple of glow plug errors some time back so think that at least 2 will need changing. Starting is also slightly lumpy, which I'm putting down to damaged/old glow plugs.

I've bought 4 Bosch plugs for £40 so it's not going to break the bank.

I've also read that they can assist the stop/start function, which has fallen by the wayside over the last few months as the battery gets older.

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Did you do the glow plugs? how did you get on ?

Hello mate, no, I didn't get round to doing them. I still intend to at some stage and they're in my garage but the scare stories outweighed the positives.