DIESEL HELP! Glow plugs quit on me.

[NielsGalan]

Evening, folks.

Strange problem, don't know where to look for the cure. Basically the glow plugs aren't operating at all. Never in my 5 years of ownership has she pulled anything like this on me!

The car had been sitting outside for half an hour while I was in somewhere. I come out again to start it and no glow plug light/no glowing at all. Tried starting it anyway, but no cigar. It just wouldn't fire, although several attempts.

I tried looking for fuses, but they all looked ok (and none of them seemed to belong to the glow plug thingy). So the question is, what controls the glow plugs, and what could cause them to stop working all of a sudden?

I eventually had to give her a rolling start and she fired up immediately, so I'm home, parked nose facing downhill :-)

[NielsGalan]

So I've been looking around and it looks like it's not a fuse i'm looking for.

According to realoem there is a control box somewhere (in the engine compartment I guess) which probably needs a look.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HA51&mospid=47372&btnr=12_0309&hg=12&fg=15

So it seems i'm the first one to have this problem.

[Tiger]

If you are looking for the fuse to the glow plug system... trace the thick wire back from the glow plug relay unit.

[Ferret]

If you are looking for the fuse to the glow plug system... trace the thick wire back from the glow plug relay unit.

In the 525TD the glowplug fuse is in the E-Box, it's the metal bar screwed down at each end hiding under the thicker red wire:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a190/Ferret101/Car/IMG_8182.jpg

I should imagine it will be in the same place on the 524TD

[NielsGalan]

Thanks a lot. I'll give it a shot.

Hey, I'm a poet and I don't even know it.

Niels

[NielsGalan]

Hey Ferret,

I just had a look in there, but I couldn't find it. Stupid me, I didn't print out the pic you put up, so I really couldn't compare. But gererally it all looks the same apart from that I didn't see the glow plug unit.

Did you have to remove a row of relays to get to yours? Because there was a box of some sorts under there. It was getting dark and it's cold and snowy, so I didn't dig that deep.

But now I can see that yours looks pretty much the same. The unit must just be under there somewhere. Yes?

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

Yes, he sent me the same shot and it took some looking at, first thought was its a link but if you look carefully its a fusable one and can corrode so take it out and clean it.Take the battery leads off or you will glow in the dark.