Bit of advice before spending money tomorrow

[Alank]

Hi,

Had a bit of trouble with the car over the last couple of days but getting to the end of it now thank god lol

It all started when i asked my mate to check why the dreaded spanner light was coming on but goes off after a few seconds when the car is started. Now we think we know what it is but would like your advice first just incase someone thinks where completey wrong about it.

Now the fault code is P0380, Glow plugs low voltage or something. Now we think it's the battery on its last legs as on his computer he checked the battery level and that was below 12v 11 point something like 6 if it matters then when started went up to like 14v as expected.

Does this sound about right as i dont wanna go out and buy a new battery if its not going to solve the problem it has been struggling to start over the winter so was expecting it to be dead one morning anyway so wouldnt surpise me if it was this.

Sorry for a long post.

Cheers Alan.

[VECTRA HEAD]

The spanner light coming on for a minute on the 1st start up when the engine is cold sounds like you have one or more faulty glowplugs m8,thats where i would start..hth

[barney490]

If you go to your local motor factors, they will test your battery for free before you buy a new one. The test for cold crank amps is more important to determine the state of the battery. Sounds more like glow plugs to me. Don't forget that the glow plugs draw volts before starting, so seeing 11.6 volts at start up going to 14 volts when running sounds about right.

[sla002]

hi mate.

battery and alternator sound like there ok. i would change the glow plugs as they help the engine start in the cold weather and the fault code reader says the problem is with them aswell.

think the plugs are about £30+, so much cheaper than battery or alternator.

just what i'd do, mit be worth waiting for a few more posts.

[lee gsi]

heck the resistance of the glow plugs.

They should be less than 3 Ohms

[Critch]

although your battery is probably upto job atm it is reading slighly low.

a 100% charged battery should be 12.7 volts
and below 20% would be 12.2

that being said 11.6 should be enough to start your car and aslong as batt is staying up over 10.5v whilst cranking id say keep your batt.

next stage is to test each glow plug for voltage (you may have to turn key on and off for each one to ensure the glow realy is sending signal to them)

once youve checked for voltage at them all then, check the resistance throught each one. looking for about 2 ohm.

but you will probably find the faulty one is either really high into ohms reading or just open.

you can then further cnfirm by using a set of jump leads the neagitive on the glow plug body and then touching positive to the connector end.

you should then see the glow end turn white/red hot within a second or 2

hope that helps

adam

[shoota70]

my spanner comes on for the first couple of mins on startup and its the glowplugs but my machanic mate said that if its not giving probs then no point changing it yet =)

[Alank]

Thanks i will see if anyone i know has something to test the glow plugs with tomorrow i thought it would probably be one of them thats why i asked on here first.

just gotta figure out how to test them lol

[lee gsi]

9 times out of 10 its a dead or high resistance glow plug that brings up that fault.

Get a meter and set it to resistance.

Remove the connectors from the glow plug (They pull off but sometime tight)

Put one lead on the negative of the battery and the other lead on top of the glow plug and se what the resistance is.

About 3 Ohm's brings the fault light on. A new/good glow plug will be less than that but nearer to 1 Ohm.

[tomo610]

when i checked my resistance 3 plugs where 4.5 and 1 plug was 5.7 no fault lighs or codes ?