Glow Plugs

[dawndriver]

Could someone please tell me where I can the glow plugs on the B6 passat. They seem to be a well kept secret.

Many thanks.

Ps: Its an 06 2.0 Tdi

[Quatrelle]

Have you removed the plastic engine cover yet?

[dawndriver]

Have you removed the plastic engine cover yet?


Had the cover off several times, been in and around the engine with a mirror and could see nothing.

[billcoleman]

I think they are under the plastic cover (held down by a series of screws) which is under the big clip-on cover over the engine. I will find out tomorrow because my CAG COM tells me I have an electrical fault with one of the glow-plugs (and an injector regulation range exceeded).

[dawndriver]

I think they are under the plastic cover (held down by a series of screws) which is under the big clip-on cover over the engine. I will find out tomorrow because my CAG COM tells me I have an electrical fault with one of the glow-plugs (and an injector regulation range exceeded).

Thanks for the reply mate, The bad news is that I just found out where they are and its not good for all those with 2.0 engines. Apparently they are located inside the rocker cover, under the rocker shaft. VW garage quoted £220 to replace the set, local guy going to do them for 120. Never thought a simple job like changing a set of glow plugs could be so difficult. They certainly did not make this engines easy to work on.

[billcoleman]

Hi. Today I had the time to look at my glow plugs. You are correct - the plastic cover is the rocker/cam cover and the glowplugs along with all the wires and injectors are buried under the camshafts and all soaked in oil.

The hardest part of the job was to remove the cam cover as it is surrounded by a bunch of pipes and the inlet ducting - so you need to remove the inlet elbow between the air filter and rear section, then you can remove the hidden bolt which retains the rear section.

Now that you have some room, the cover comes off quite easilly.

I then pulled-off cyl 4 glow plug elect cap (you need a pair of long nosed pliers) and checked the resistance from the connection to ground - it was open circuit - all the others were about 0.6 ohm.

To remove the plug was fairly simple with an 8mm deep socket (in fact I have a set of T-sockets which is even better).

I have a complete new set comming tomorrow from Eurocarparts and do not expect to take longer than 1 hour to get it all back together (may as well replace them all now).

I agree it is all very complex, but not too bad once you locate all the bits.

Price of the parts is about £55 delivered. All in all, much easier than the cam-belt change that I just did.

[dawndriver]

Hi. Today I had the time to look at my glow plugs. You are correct - the plastic cover is the rocker/cam cover and the glowplugs along with all the wires and injectors are buried under the camshafts and all soaked in oil.

The hardest part of the job was to remove the cam cover as it is surrounded by a bunch of pipes and the inlet ducting - so you need to remove the inlet elbow between the air filter and rear section, then you can remove the hidden bolt which retains the rear section.

Now that you have some room, the cover comes off quite easilly.

I then pulled-off cyl 4 glow plug elect cap (you need a pair of long nosed pliers) and checked the resistance from the connection to ground - it was open circuit - all the others were about 0.6 ohm.

To remove the plug was fairly simple with an 8mm deep socket (in fact I have a set of T-sockets which is even better).

I have a complete new set comming tomorrow from Eurocarparts and do not expect to take longer than 1 hour to get it all back together (may as well replace them all now).

I agree it is all very complex, but not too bad once you locate all the bits.

Price of the parts is about £55 delivered. All in all, much easier than the cam-belt change that I just did.

Good job mate, I wish I was in a position to do my own, unfortunately I live in an apartment with no place to work at the car. It's a bit annoying having to rely on garages, especially at the rates being charged these days. What did it cost you for the cam belt kit?

[billcoleman]

The belt kit was about £125 and water pump about £25. Locking tool set £25. Total with tools £175.

I was quoted £500 by VW garage to do the belt plus another £150 to change pump at the same time. The pump is only held on by 3 bolts and took about 10 minutes to change (once the belt is removed).

So I did a complete service at the same time (all filters and oil) - this all cost in total less than £250 which would have been around £1000 at the VW garage.

So I then bought a VAG COM kit - that allowed me to diagnose the glow plug problem (and I now know that there is an injector out of range, but I do'nt know what to do about that yet).

So far a pretty expensive car to maintain even if I do the work. It also seems to burn more oil than I was expecting.

[dawndriver]

The belt kit was about £125 and water pump about £25. Locking tool set £25. Total with tools £175.

I was quoted £500 by VW garage to do the belt plus another £150 to change pump at the same time. The pump is only held on by 3 bolts and took about 10 minutes to change (once the belt is removed).

So I did a complete service at the same time (all filters and oil) - this all cost in total less than £250 which would have been around £1000 at the VW garage.

So I then bought a VAG COM kit - that allowed me to diagnose the glow plug problem (and I now know that there is an injector out of range, but I do'nt know what to do about that yet).

So far a pretty expensive car to maintain even if I do the work. It also seems to burn more oil than I was expecting.


I find it a bit ironic that I decided on this car because I expected it to be economic to run, certainly got that wrong. :mad:

Thanks for the info, cheapest where I live is about £175 for the kit, not enough competition. The plan these days seems to be to prevent one from doing their own work, to the extent they will not even provide technical information. Any chance they do a postal service where you got your belt kit? VAG COM kit would be another useful item.

[billcoleman]

Try these people:

http://www.eurocarparts.co.uk/ecp/p/Car-Parts

[dazzer123]

Try these people:

http://www.eurocarparts.co.uk/ecp/p/Car-Parts
Hi mate i had a problem getting my glow plugs as the bkp engine uses 7 volt glow plugs and all other codes use 4.4 volt euro car parts has got them listed as 4.4 volt so has gsf and all local parts factors so who is wrong .vw charged me £92 for 4xglow plugs inc v.a.t and was also told i can only use ngk not bosch lucus or berue:zx11: do you guys no any different

[martin1810]

The glow plugs used in B6 PD engines are the same for BMA, BMR, BVE, BWV and BUZ, BKP. They are all NGK CZ304

The BMP engine is the odd one being NGK CZ104

BKC, BXE, BLS all use NGK Y-607-AS

Neither bosch or beru make glow plugs for these engines according to their catalogues.

[dazzer123]

All i was told by a vw specialist was mine run a 7 volt all the others run a 4.4 volt i can get 4x bosch glow plugs 4.4 volt for £40.00 if these will run in my 2006 bkp tdi 2.0 engine i will take the new ones back to vw next week and save myself £50 anyone used these or know if they work anyhelp would be good before i fit the vw ones

[billcoleman]

I bought the following parts for my Passat (which I believe has a BKP engine):
4 x 438440155 @ 12.70 GBP
BERU Glow plug Volkswagen Passat 2.0 2005

These all seem to have worked with no problem.

[dazzer123]

I bought the following parts for my Passat (which I believe has a BKP engine):
4 x 438440155 @ 12.70 GBP
BERU Glow plug Volkswagen Passat 2.0 2005

These all seem to have worked with no problem.
Hi mate are they 7 volt or 4.4 volts i was on the phone for 2hrs to diffrent car spares shops and got all diffrent answers:aargh4:some say mine can only run 7 volts eurocarparts list beru but only 4.4 volts.are there any vw mechanics on here who can help me can i use the 4.4 volts or have they got to be the 7volt ones

[martin1810]

Looks like it all depends on who's catalogue you read. NGK say the glow plugs are 7v but some others say they are 4.4v fast warm up. So that helps alot. :aargh4:
What is even stranger is that the Beru glow plug mentioned above is listed by beru as suitable for a large number of VAG models. The list does NOT include passat B6. How weird is that.
As far as I can tell the passat uses 7v glow plugs so the beru ones are not suitable as they are 4.4v. I have searched web sites for NGK, beru and bosch for this info...so it is not my opinion....just what the sites say.

[dazzer123]

Just took the vw ones out the box and they are 7 volts so it looks like only ngk do the 7 volt ones but thanks for your help guys :beerchug:

[billcoleman]

After reading all the replys on this thread, I have come to the conclusion that I fitted 7v glow plugs instead of the 4.4v ones. There seems to be no issues with starting the car (even when it was very cold this last winter), but the car smokes a little more from cold.

As it is such a difficult job to replace them, I will leave them there for another year or so.

[Diesel Dude]

thanks to all the people here for the info regarding glow plugs. I managed to replace my broken glow plug last weekend on the strength of the info here. I can confirm that the bkp engine in my car does indeed use 7volt plugs. a garage replaced one of my plugs a few months back with a 4.4 volt plug and it burned out after just 4 months. ngk is the way forward. thanks guys.