Since my previous post I have found out that VX heater plugs are £30 each! and thats cos they are ceramic and VX have some agreement with NGK as sole supplier or summat.
Its all to with bad starting(7 secs cranking) and white smoke/rough idle for 5 secs after starting. I still have the original set of plugs I exchanged for the halfords ones I fitted last year and these are NGK ceramic ones. Anyhow I was testing these old Plugs for resistance and got readings of 1-1.5 Ohms for three of them and 1 of them I got a reading of 22 ohms!(by measurin between the metal contact where the screw thread goes into and body of the plug) and it looks burnt BUT if I measure the resistance ON the screw thread and main body of the Plug I get 1.3 Ohms???
So are these reisitances showning burnt out glow plugs? and do you measure the resistance between the screw thread top of the Plug and the body of the pug OR the metal part that the screw thread goes into and the body of the plug?
I think I will test the older plugs by taking off the bus bar from the plugs in the engine and fitting the older plugs on the bar while out of the engine and switch the ignition on and look for the glow pattern? Does that sound ok?
One thing to note is that last year after I changed the plugs with the halfords ones I saw no difference at all! in starting/cranking time. perhaps due to them not being ceramic?
So I was thinking perhaps I should just get one NGK plug and refit the other 3 plugs?
Please help me as its my 1st car and and im on a budget as Ive already had a new radiator fitted and the engine reshimmed.
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Hi Cloudzz,
You can get yourself in all sorts of a tizzy by faffing about measuring resistances.
The acid test is to remove each glow plug, one at a time, and connect it to the battery via a stout cable.
Rest it on a brick or some such inert material. If it's OK it'll light up white hot at the tip. If not, it won't.
Should only take 15 mins or so and the knowledge you will gain is priceless.
Good luck,
Sean
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You will also have to earth it back to the battery as well, with another bit of stout cable.
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Update:
I finally got out the old plugs, they were quite stiff and stuck but eventually they all came out(1yr old Halfords ones) They were covered in thick soot so that means that the combustion isnt complete right? I tried putting a jump lead on the plug out of the car but I got nothing(probably cos I didnt earth the plug!) anyway I just put back in the original ceramic NGK ones (9yrs old) and she started up beautifully....much less smoke and faster. On checking the resistance of the halfords plug only one plug had any reading at all! of 5 Ohms So I presume that the Halfords ones,as reported on other forums, have burnt out in less than a year and I was trying to start the car with one glow plug!! I think its because these cars have a post heating time of up to 7-8 minutes and these cheap metal Plugs burn out.
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