Glow plugs going to trash!!! Please help :(

[ragebe]

I have all the Audi repair manuals (in German) and I had tightened all the glow plugs to 17Nm as the manual says.
Also, as I have said before, I measured the supply voltages (battery and ignition) as I have the electrical schematics for this car.
Don't really know what to do next... I will probably let the car "as is", with the glow plug fuse disconnected and run the car without glow plugs... the car starts anyway... just takes a bit longer and smoke a little when cold. Anyway, its better to leave it this way than to risk engine damage due to another burnt glow plug.

Interesting; I have failures on my glow-plugs all the time and Ross-Tech suggested the GP harness. Looking on the Euro Carparts website, they give 15 Nm as the torque setting for my 2.7 TDi

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Au...992c102&000164

[OysterGray]

Interesting; I have failures on my glow-plugs all the time and Ross-Tech suggested the GP harness. Looking on the Euro Carparts website, they give 15 Nm as the torque setting for my 2.7 TDi

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Au...992c102&000164

Really??? how often??? Well it seems these car's are problematic regarding glow plug systems...
Yeah, that torque setting is interesting... but anyway, I doubt my problem has something to do with torque, because even without any glows connected, the car keeps giving incorrect voltage to connectors...
My last test was to construct one circuit apart from the original for testing purposes.
- Using two jumper battery cables, I attached one of them (the black) from battery (-) to ground pin on GP relay.
- The other battery jumper cable, attached from battery (+) to the +12 pin on GP relay with a jumper wire to the ignition +12v pin on the very same relay (as if the car was with ignition on).
- The only 2 wires that were still in it's original location were the ones that go to ECU. Supposedly, these are for glow timing given by ECU.
And you know what... same problem.
I'm getting really tired of this..... too much money spent.... and worst of all, I suppose this problem is ECU related...
Hope this is really a matter of firmware upgrade only...

[ragebe]

Here's a scan:

005659 - Glowplug for Cylinder 2 (Q11)
P161B - 001 - Open Circuit
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 01100001
Fault Priority: 0
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 255
Mileage: 225965 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2014.01.16
Time: 12:40:38

Freeze Frame:
RPM: 945 /min
Torque: 85.8 Nm
Speed: 0.0 km/h
Duty Cycle: 1.0 %
Voltage: 14.06 V
Duty Cycle: 22.9 %
Temperature: 6.3°C

005660 - Glowplug for Cylinder 3 (Q12)
P161C - 001 - Open Circuit
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 01100001
Fault Priority: 0
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 255
Mileage: 225965 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2014.01.16
Time: 12:40:38

Freeze Frame:
RPM: 945 /min
Torque: 85.8 Nm
Speed: 0.0 km/h
Duty Cycle: 1.0 %
Voltage: 14.06 V
Duty Cycle: 22.9 %
Temperature: 6.3°C

005662 - Glowplug for Cylinder 5 (Q15)
P161E - 001 - Open Circuit
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 01100001
Fault Priority: 0
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 255
Mileage: 225965 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2014.01.16
Time: 12:40:38

Freeze Frame:
RPM: 945 /min
Torque: 85.8 Nm
Speed: 0.0 km/h
Duty Cycle: 1.0 %
Voltage: 14.06 V
Duty Cycle: 22.9 %
Temperature: 6.3°C

005661 - Glowplug for Cylinder 4 (Q13)
P161D - 001 - Open Circuit
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 01100001
Fault Priority: 0
Fault Frequency: 189
Reset counter: 255
Mileage: 225965 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2014.01.16
Time: 12:40:47

Date should be 2015, not 2014. However I've been getting 4, 5 and now 6 failures on GPs for a number of years. Car has always started okay, so I've not worried about it. However last week, it was a bit tractor-like when starting, so as Euro CarParts are doing GPs for a tenner a go, I've just ordered 6 and will fit them over the weekend.

[OysterGray]

Hope the best of luck for you.
Out of curiosity, don't you get "Implausible signal" or "Electrical malfuncion for glow plug controller" faults ?

[ragebe]

Not for GP (that I can recall)

I get:
00446 - Function Limitation due to Under-Voltage
002 - Lower Limit Exceeded - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100010
Fault Priority: 7
Fault Frequency: 2
Reset counter: 45
Time Indication: 15

00532 - Supply Voltage B+
002 - Lower Limit Exceeded - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100010
Fault Priority: 7
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 45
Time Indication: 15


but I've been having battery problems for years, related, I suspect to water ingress, of the sort that Gup experienced in his thread 'The most lemon AUDI ever strikes again' and I suspect that this is causing shorts and various electrical problems. I replaced the battery about 4-years ago and I've just re-fitted the original and all has been well for the last week.

I'll re-do a scan tomorrow, as I've cleared all the DTCs; however I've had problems with rear-parking senors - replaced the left-outer one and then the right-outer started playing up. Now the left-outer AND the right-outer, both appear to be duff, so they throw up spurious errors on a VCDS scan.

[OysterGray]

Hello all...
Just to let you know that this problem is faulty ECU (confirmed by Audi).

Thank you very much for all your support.

[gaspard]

Hello,

That is a funny way to end a thread. I have your problem with the full voltage to GPs, and I have just burned my second brand new set!!

So you've had a 'confirmation' from Audi that the ECU is to blame (they like to blame everything on poor old ECUs. What does this mean for you and I? Did Audi do a software update on it, or is it a replacement job... what are the options? What did you do? Please help as its gettingcold here in France and starting is becoming very laborious!

Thanks,
Tom.

[ragebe]

Hello,

That is a funny way to end a thread. I have your problem with the full voltage to GPs, and I have just burned my second brand new set!!

So you've had a 'confirmation' from Audi that the ECU is to blame (they like to blame everything on poor old ECUs. What does this mean for you and I? Did Audi do a software update on it, or is it a replacement job... what are the options? What did you do? Please help as its gettingcold here in France and starting is becoming very laborious!

Thanks,
Tom.

I never did change my glow-plugs. They're a pig to get at, so I asked my local independent to give 'em a whirl when he was doing a service/MOT. He said it was risky. As he got two unscrewed but the others weren't budging and he didn't want to snap them off. I've since traded at the car in, so have half-a-dozen unused GPs.

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[gaspard]

Thanks for the reply. I've got the 3.0L version and they easy as pie to get at. I just don't want to have to get at them every 1.7 seconds!!
What did OysterGray do?????

[OysterGray]

Thanks for the reply. I've got the 3.0L version and they easy as pie to get at. I just don't want to have to get at them every 1.7 seconds!!
What did OysterGray do?????

In reality I did nothing.... I mean the car still have the same problem. My battery went bad so I replaced it with a new one (oem). After changing the battery the car was running like new for a while.... The glows started to receive 3 volts max and all working properly. All of a sudden and the glows failed again ... This leads me to believe there is something wrong with some electrical supply/ground making poor contact.... If anyone comes to a solution please let me know. I have not messed around with this again because the burnt glow tips almost fell into engine.... thus leading to catastrophic engine damage.
Regards.