Bad day...estimated cost please?

[Shelster]

Went to check the glow plugs on my Fiat 500 as had warning light come on and when I managed to get down to them, one came away in my hand when I removed the HT lead.

No thread at all so the main body of the plug is inside the engine.

Had a quick look at all the others and they are all rusted. Think there has been some dissimilar metal welding going on over the 7 years they have been in there and exposed to the elements.

Have not started the car and have no intentions of.

Have spoken to the breakdown cover people and they can recover the car, but that won't be until monday now as the garages round here are closed.

Does anyone have a ball park figure of how much they think it will cost to remove the head on the engine and replace the glow plugs? Is a 1.3 diesel.

Wife not very happy at all.

 

[slick rick]

I believe there are people out there who are equipped and have the skill to extract a snapped plug with out removal of the head, AFAIK they have a range of drill bits, extractors and tap's designed specifically for this purpose.

How much this procedure will cost, I honestly have no idea.

 

[GeX]

It should still start and run, might just smoke a bit at first until that cylinder warms up. They're not connected via HT leads (I'm just being picky there, but you're going to need to talk to a garage so may as well clear that term up now).

I doubt the head will have to come off, but yeah - just ring a local garage and explain.

 

[andy_mk3]

I take it you mean it came out and there are no threads left to bolt it back in? If that's the case then best not to start it as it will run on 3 cylinders and make a lot of noise and chuck fuel out the hole! It will need a helicoil or similar repair.

 

[Dr Who]

I take it you mean it came out and there are no threads left to bolt it back in? If that's the case then best not to start it as it will run on 3 cylinders and make a lot of noise and chuck fuel out the hole! It will need a helicoil or similar repair.

Or more likely it snapped off at the threaded portion like he described.

 

[Orionaut]

Went to check the glow plugs on my Fiat 500 as had warning light come on and when I managed to get down to them, one came away in my hand when I removed the HT lead.

No thread at all so the main body of the plug is inside the engine.

Had a quick look at all the others and they are all rusted. Think there has been some dissimilar metal welding going on over the 7 years they have been in there and exposed to the elements.

Have not started the car and have no intentions of.

Have spoken to the breakdown cover people and they can recover the car, but that won't be until monday now as the garages round here are closed.

Does anyone have a ball park figure of how much they think it will cost to remove the head on the engine and replace the glow plugs? Is a 1.3 diesel.

Wife not very happy at all.

This is why it is a good idea to change the glow plugs every 2-3 years regardless of condition.

(It is also why 60,000 mile/5 years intervals for spark plugs is a bad idea, they can snap too (and if it is the rear cylinders on a Merc V8 then you can expect to have your kidneys dragged out through your Arse (metaphorically speaking that is))

 

[Deleted member 66701]

This is why it is a good idea to change the glow plugs every 2-3 years regardless of condition.

(It is also why 60,000 mile/5 years intervals for spark plugs is a bad idea, they can snap too (and if it is the rear cylinders on a Merc V8 then you can expect to have your kidneys dragged out through your Arse (metaphorically speaking that is))

That's one thing I find odd with modern service schedules - in the "old days" you'd remove the plugs at a service to check condition and gaps even if they weren't on the schedule to be replaced and this undoing the plugs and doing them back up once a year stopped the seizing issue. I don't know why it's not done at services anymore.

I think it's because engine issues are now diagnosed by a computer, rather than checking the plug colour - which used to tell you a lot about how well the engine was running.

I was always taught to put a smear of copper slip on the spark threads as well (although you need to drop the tightening torque a little if you do this).

 

[snapdragon69]

If the glowplug hex just sheared off before it turned. I would be tempted to just leave it and see how it starts, otherwise you would probably need to remove the cylinder head and get an engineering place to remove it with spark erosion or similar. If you turned the glowplug or suspect the body is deformed/twisted, it would be safer not to start the car for fear of debris being in the cylinder.