E300D Not Happy Cold Starting

[Chazchuzzlewitt]

All of a sudden my 606-powered 124 E300D has starting misfiring badly at cold starts (since the temp dropped again -last few days)
Really juddering around almost feeling like it's going to stall if I start to move off without letting it warm up for about 10-20 secs or if I don't give it a bit of gas on start up.
The glow-plug indicator is going out after the usual warm-up period and I'm leaving them to warm another 5-10 secs or so but it's still doing it.
Last winter it didn't like cold starts that much either, but it wasn't so severe.

 

[tjo]

glow plugs will be faulty, if more than one is faulty light works normally for some reason, sounds like you have 2 or 3 out if its shuddering badly,you can check the resistance of each plug through the multi plug on the relay on n/s inner wing

 

[Chazchuzzlewitt]

thought I'd ring the dealer for fun to see the price for replacing the 6 glow plugs- £350ish... Most of it is labour time of course... Think I'll have a go meself...

 

[vigitalmode]

£350 !!!!!!! OMG what a rip off!!!

 

[Parrot of Doom]

It will be almost half that for an indie. Personally, I wouldn't do it myself - its a tricky job.

 

[Chazchuzzlewitt]

yea, most of the labour is taking the manifold off and putting it back on of course. I've heard horror stories about the plugs breaking off in the head so I'll take it very gently if I do it myself.

 

[The Big E]

Hi
I've just renewed number 5 on mine. I made a trough out of 'plumbers mate' just below the plug and filled it with WD40 so that it covered the bottom of the plug. Left it for a day, topping up a few times. The plug fought all the way but eventually came out in one piece!:grin: Just take your time.

 

[Chazchuzzlewitt]

just to update, I managed to get 4 out and changed successfully- 1,2 and 4 +5. No. 3 I couldn't get to- fuel lines in the way and not able to get a socket or spanner in there- anyone out there manage to change this plug? Very frustrating.
No. 4 seemed to be stuck in the head- the nut on the plug rotating but not the rest of the plug! Grrr...
Taking everything apart and putting it back together was a pain- and cleaning the black goo from the intake ports was great fun. That EGR and crankcase blow-by are annoying.

 

[Andy Cottrell]

My E300D has also started to splutter when started from cold. Additionally the glow plug lamp will come on when driving ( generally after 10 miles or so ). I thought I'd have a look at the glowplugs and measure them. However I can't remove the large aluminium air inlet pipe that runs across the top of the engine from the EGR valve to the inlet manifold. It appears that there is only one M6 bolt holding this pipe at the inlet manifold end, although there appears to be a "mechanism" underneath ( don't know what it is... something to do with the cruise control?). I've removed the bolt and pulled but nothing happens. I haven't applied too much force as I didn't want to break anything.

Previous posts have indicated that several of you have removed your glowplugs, therefore you must have removed the air inlet pipe. Did you have any problems ? Is there anything obvious that I'm missing.

Any pointers/advice gratefully received.

 

[Chazchuzzlewitt]

Hi Andy,

that pipe is a bit of a pain in the bum to get off. You have to undo the bolt that you mentioned, to the intake manifold, and also next to the EGR there's a bracket with two bolts that supports the pipe.
The cross-over pipe is very stubborn about coming free- there's big rubber O-rings at both ends and they don't like to move! Lots of rocking and prising to get it to budge.
In the end you may find it less frustrating to take the part of the inlet pipe off that the EGR is attached to (4 bolts) and then take the cross-over pipe with it. It takes a fair bit of time but you'll spend less time pulling your hair out.
The 'mechanisms' underneath are vacuum-operated flaps, which vary the amount of air coming into the intake at different speeds to 'tune' it for best preformance.

The intake manifold has to come off to get to all the plugs, which is a pain in the arse too...