[Vwpickups] A2 glow plug !@#$!

[Mathew Banack]

Working on an 85 Golf for a winter beater car.

 

Glow plugs are intermittent, one day they work, next day they dont.  When they don't, its crankety crank for about 30 seconds and it will go.  Some days the glow plugs work, and it fires right up.  The light in the cluster always says it works, but I've put a test-lite on the bus bar and found for sure they work sometimes and for sure the bus-bar is dead - zero volts when they don't.

 

Bentley says check the T terminal of the glow plug relay plug for continuity to ground below 50C thats about 122F.  Above 122, there should be no continuity.  Isn't that sensor a varistor, that is higher resistance higher temperatures, rather than a switch that closes below 50C and opens above?

 

Or is there circuitry between the socket and the sensor that turns resistance into off/on?  Nothing mentioned in Bentley...

 

Is that sensor troublesome?  Could a PO have hooked the glow plug T wire to the guage sensor?  Or replaced a T sensor with a guage sensor?  Is there a part number on the glow plug T sensor?  Whats the PN?

 

The annoying thing is the intermittent fault, one day it works perfect, next day it craps out, especially when the Chevvy driving neighbours are watching.  The cloud of smoke it makes after 30 seconds of cranking is kind of embarrassing....

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mathew Banack
 		 	   		  
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