Land Rover TDV6 - The GLOW PLUG debacle 

It wasn't a wasted video; it was a visual documentation of mindful restraint.

Morning, I have a Disco 3 HSE from 2005. I have little engineering skills a rely upon an excellent Land Rover specialist in Bury, England for my engineering needs. About 5 years ago my car started to refuse to fire up when the temp was 2 C degrees or less. 5 of the glow plugs had failed and my garage could not remove them. A specialist was engaged and they failed also to remove them also. The answer was to install a unit that fires up the pre heater using the LR key fob. This warms the engine using the battery and so it always starts now ( I have used it in -10 C). It takes about 25 minute for a full cycle but will not start if the battery is not charged enough. This has the added benefit of making the cabin warm when I get in and means that the car never starts on a cold engine. Being remote controlled there is no need to go outside to the initiate the process as the car warms up as I have my coffee. I enjoy the channel and find it both informative and entertaining. Regards Colin

You win some, you lose some. We just win watching 👍

I am amazed at how composed you are when tackling jobs like this. It's never fun when you are leaning into the mouth of the beast with the intention of performing a tooth extraction and the damn thing won't come out. Jobs like this really wobble my wallabies but you tackled it brilliantly.....and didn't yell at your wife.

Despite being a pretty straightforward job, and working perfectly, the first thing I did with my Disco' 2 was to pay a mechanic to change the glowplugs just in case anything went wrong. Soon as I got the vehicle home I pulled the glowplugs out again and coated them in Copaslip before refitting them. Since then, I remove the glowplugs, add more Copaslip and refit them every year.

It's never a waste of time watching you two at work, very funny too !

Another great one guys.... Cheers!

Glad you made it safely off the summit 😊 Wise decision to turn back.

Great presentation! I’m here for the dialogue/comedy as much as the information that is shared! Thanks for sharing your time and efforts!

Always informative, always funny, successful or not you learn something every time!

I use a very small welding torch on seized parts and it generally works. If you make a dam with plastercene you can fill it with penetrating oil and leave it for longer, you can leave it in there as you try to loosen the plugs. It’s the steel/aluminium reaction that causes them to stick but I find a small welding torch helps a lot.

I used a low torque air-powered impact tool. I saw the same tool on offer for under €100 in Germany a year or so ago. I pre-soaked the plugs in ATF/acetone mix several times. I increasingly threw caution to the wind. I started trying not to exceed 20nm. I then went back and forward at up to 40NM. I managed to extract and change all 6 glow plugs. It only took 2 entire days... You can tell I got the three that showed signs of movement out first, then with more soaking and heat cycling got the rest out a week later. This was removing factory plugs in my 2005 D3 just a couple of years ago.

Vera ‘ we are doomed’. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Excellent video as always, thanks for the tip on the glow plugs!

Great video again and nice to see the disco being used properly at the end of the vid :-)

The moment the camera falls down inside the vehicle... Christian... You made an awesome airline rack on the dash, now its the time you use it :) :) :)

Thanks for a very interesting video.

Great video guys glad you made it back before the summit !

Excellent video as ever, actually more useful than had it all gone smoothly. As always, best wishes from the U.K.!

Your honesty is very refreshing . Happy Trails

spot on

I enjoyed the video. Knowing when to quit is a very valuable skill. My mother told me that countless times when growing up. Modern diesel engine start pretty well in the cold even without glow plugs. Those high-pressure systems do a very good job of atomizing the fuel

A wise man knows when to stop - and Christian is a wise man! If those glow plugs won't come out, you may as well put off changing them until one or more fails. Sometimes we must compromise between what is dictated by ideals and what is practical.

Excellent. Love the Everest analogy.

Sois increíbles, hacéis un gran equipo.Saludos

Great video.

Another great update on Germanys favourite Discovery 3!! Love the content about fire wood collection at the end and Vera asking the guys to speak English!! Priceless

There is often more beauty in failure than in success. Thanks for the fun.

It was a great video despite the partial failure with the glow plugs. Success with the wood and your safe return from almost reaching the peak of Everest made it a very entertaining video.

I liked the way you "Logged off" at the end of the video. 👍🤣

You did the right thing and stopped short of disaster.👍

I Love Vera's 'Oh My Gods!'

Another excellent video Vera’s face when you mentioned engine failure OH MY GOD Priceless lol, Vera get Christian to treat you to some Cera Trim for your scuttle panel.I had a faded scuttle panel tried a good few options to get colour bs k into it none worked.Bought Cera Trim and it’s fantastic brings the colour back.

Good job 👏 👍 👌

Just catching up on all your videos they are great and I have a Disco 2 not a 3 or 4. My cars never go to a garage either, I fabricate my tools on my lathe and Mill. I have the Sykes Pickavant vibro tool for glow plugs but it’s absolutely fabulous for shifting any stuck threaded bolt. I use mine on all sorts even stuck corroded bleed nipples. I love your humour and the content of your videos and your banter with your wife. 👍

Great vid👌 It's of course a good thing to know when to step back and reconsider. And when you have the numbers for the 8mm at 20Nm it's a bit easier to know. Of course as mentioned in a comment, there are induction heaters. Some are very expensive, but you can get one from ~250 Euros, but they may be a bit bulky for GP removal.

usually glow plugs break because of the carbon on the especially the ends BUT if you put some RedX 1 before all the carbon will be gone that's if you can get it and you will get your glow plugs out , thanks for the video

Christian and Vera I have to admire your skills and mindset when working on your vehicles! Even though you know exactly what you are doing it must be a little frustrating having to remove so much for so little:)

Great video, atf and acetone 50/50 mix is good at penetration but these looked very stubborn. I’ve seen some use conductive electricity tools to heat up the area directly but those tools are very expensive. I bought the manual fbh heater gizmo so no worries now even though my plugs have had it too

ATF fluid and acetone 50/50 mix is what I normally use for penetration fluid, usually works great but looks like these were especially stubborn.

Great video as normal.👍 When I did mine I used a laser glow plug impact gun, it worked a treat, I just cable tied the trigger down and left it to do its thing.

Discretion is the better part of valour. Thank you for the video as always.

Whistlingbrickie 0 seconds ago I’m from the U.K and what a great couple you are to watch. Interesting video but after watching you dismantling the engine components I don’t think I’ll be attempting to change my glow plugs..😂.👍

If you like puzzles and labyrinths, do a bit of spannering on your Discovery... But anyway, a big thank you for sharing all this information about Discovery - technics.

Ihr hattet recht, die Rosen sehen wirklich wundervoll aus. Erstklassige Arbeit. Und ja, man sollte den Point of no Return, manchmal nicht überschreiten. Wie immer ein sehr gutes Video.

Super job of cutting & stacking tons of firewood.

Well informed video. And I think this was right to do.

Good move to return to base camp. I snapped one off in my TD4 Freelander, a very large bill later enough said 🙄 As always a very enjoyable video..👍

This reminds me of changing the spark plugs in the Ford 5.4L 3V and 4.6L 3V V8 gasoline engines. The plugs are notorious for breaking off in the cylinder head if changed after 60k-80k miles. Lisle makes an extraction tool, but if that does work the head has to come off! Good call on “turning around.”

your videos always remind that if i buy a disco i also have to buy a christian !!!!!!!

I'm admiring your firewood supply! I know it has to dry but you're well stocked. Don't worry about the glow plugs...lots of warmth in the firewood.

Another very interesting video, bravo, I had no idea glow-plugs would be such a problem. Good call to back away from Hilary's Step. Not directly on the video but I missed your Call-out for a future project vote, from me if its not too late I would select more Diso Disasters 🙂

Every video is a success no matter what. Robins skills are fantastic too. Btw have you seen the utube channel Rufford ford. Water 💦 crossing, lots of LR content.

"We are dooooomed....!" -Vera LOL 🤣🤣 Guys, don't worry that things didn't work out. It's refreshing to see a video that is true to life. Many of us home mechanics take on jobs we think we can do or seem relatively simple in videos, but we run in to trouble. It's the process of working to find solutions that is practical, and if there is no burning need to replace those glow plugs right now, then live to fight another day. Keep it up! Cheers!! 🧑‍🔧🙂

Hi both, I hope you are both keeping well. GLOWPLUGS!. I was just thinking of the way some bearings are put in; you heat up the body and push the cooler bearing in. If you allow the glow plugs to expand with the engine heat, perhaps you are partiality defeating this application, so I was thinking that if you used a freezer spray on only the glow plug body (perhaps make a little jacket) it might work better as you shrink the plug a bit. P.S. You could also try local heating on the engine block with a soft butane torch flame. Best of luck. Charles Hepplewhite.

Hi C & V, I have just changed the glow plugs on a 2007 Merc Vito with 170,000 miles on it. I can highly recommend using Sea Foam - Deep Creep. I didn’t even pre soak / oil the glow plugs the day before, nor did I even bother to warm up the engine… (I’m super impatient like that) I just squirted it on waited for it to foam for a few seconds, cleaned the area with a paper towel and tried my luck. 3 out of 4 came out relatively easily but the one for number 2 cylinder was a bit tricky. I had less than 1mm of movement back and forth but I just sprayed on more Deep Creep and kept working it for a minute. After a few tries, it got better and better and eventually came out. It’s definitely worth a try when you revisit your glow plugs 👍 Keep up the good work, you entertain, inspire and help so many of us to maintain our vehicles 😁 Many thanks, Mel.

I feel like part of the family. Shine on!

Christian, I was thinking over the week, you ought to buy a new tooth brush for Vera. Like a Braun electronic one. They are even better than the manual ones for cleaning stuff. I used mine to clean the algae off the pool lights today. You have to stand in the pool to do this! I love your videos.

Britpart do a by pass control unit that works via the pre-heater to warm the engine so no need for the glow plugs 😁.i fitted one to my tdv6 sport i had as 2/3 plugs stopped working and would not start in very cold weather plus the joy with the by pass was i could warm the engine about 30 mins before a trip and the engine was nice and warm 😎.

Awww how sweet the forged roses 🌹 for Vera’s Valentine’s Day 😍 Any video you both make is awesome 🤩 How’s Fabian’s LR after the fantastic engine fix .… 🤔 Kiss for Vera for being such a lovely person 😘🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Looking forward to doing this on my LR3 🙈

Happy to see the Patreon list growing. Shame the plugs didn't want to play, but the engine starts well enough without plugs if you know how to trick it.

Very good video, again. And, boy, you sure got a lot of long and thoughtful comments. My comment is that I did not know where "It sucks" came from. I never bothered to look it up. Interesting.

Hiya , as always fantastic content and indeed as u say best to stop and come back to it if circumstances change , ,have seen some owners buy a universal remote and module for their FBH off eBay , last time I looked both items totalled around £60 , so they can then heat up the engine and cabin therefore allowing the engine to start without having working glow-plugs , hope ur both keeping well and thks so much once again

im surprised ur car doesn't dismantle itself as soon as u lift the bonnet, nice work by robin, very talented

Awesome video! According to our innacurate and probably faulty measurement (first time, based on one of your videos with a borrowed tool) on one side we have 1 and on the other probably 2 working glow plugs. Definitely will need to redo the measurements a few time (and than consult with our mechanic to see if we did it well) , but since we live in warm climate, was wondering if it even worth considering changing the glow plugs? P.S. when you talk german, just add some subtitles :D german is such a lovely language with special words like smetterling and krankenwagen!

-4 you can keep that Here in Australia +15 is cold Top marks for the glow plug job

Great work Christian and Vera, I quite look forward to your videos arriving on Sunday evenings. Indeed a pity about your not being able to remove the glow plugs, I experienced a similar problem with the 300Tdi in my old D1. Being as I live, (upside down 😂), in the Tropical North of Australia my D1 always started ok without them, I was waiting for the dreaded usual "head gasket failure" to occur before I could replace the plugs, it didn't happen, now D1 gone to a new home. Enter new Toyota ✅, thanks for the welcome at the start of your videos by the way. Not that I don't still like LandRover, I'm just getting too old now to persevere with the good engineering, poorly executed.

1 of the best mechanik on net so far

"We hope we didn't waste your time" - you absolutely did not Christian, you took a very sensible approach imo to ensure continued running of Vera's vehicle.

ATF and Acetone 50/50 mix seems to work.. I used it on my Smart TDI..

Yea, that's what I have to do with my TDV6 LR3 from 2005 also. But I haven't tried it yet. I have an impact tool which I can set to max 20 Nm - but all the time I just avoided the situation by pre heating the engine - when it's cold. On the other hand I will do it somewhen .... mayby it is easy (hopefully). Thank you for the video and stay at your LR3 as I do.

Thats why i use my FBH as a Preheater even on -15 he will start without the Glowplugs. But you need to have a good Battery Just changed mine to a Exide EA1000 with 900 CCA.

Another great video guys 👍☘️ I really hope you incorporated that attempt at the Glow-plugs with the timing belts etc?? As it seems like a lot of stripping, love the “craic” yea have making these videos, oh by the way “Craic” is Irish for fun 😂 not smoking shit… although I’d say you felt like it after the glow plugs.

Guys ye might not see this comment but that light you have for the engine bay is a pain in the butt. I use the Milwaukee engine bay LED light and I’d never go back. It was a gift recently while changing out the seats in the LR3 and was also handy for the lower steering column swap. It’s time to invest. 🙂 Also I don’t have a Toyota but I do have a Pajero and in fairness to the Japanese, I think the time it takes to change glow plugs on a mk3 Pajero is about 15 minutes. I’m torn between my two loves.

Christian, one of my early cars was called an Holden HJ station wagon. It was very simple to work on (very simple). To change spark plugs (yes, it was petrol), I would climb in, next to the straight 6 motor and remove them...you could see the ground past the motor.

Nice try guys 👍 I’ve got the same problem on my LR3! 4 out of 6 glow plugs don’t work and they are stuck. I’ve got some starting issues but only on winter days when I leave my car parked outside.

The first one broke (3 not working leading to major starting probs) so I got a specialist to get the broken stumps out. It's a slow boring (as in drilling, not 'tedious') process with a swarf aspirator - over 600€ in the end sadly, but would have been 2x that for a garage to prep/make good the engine access...

Glow plugs are every diesel owners nightmare, i would only consider doing my Defender td5 if the thing just wouldn't start, you have nothing to loose then. You would think the designers would come up with a better design, maybe the glow plug fitted to a larger tube first, then fit the whole assembly into the head, so when you take them out you can take the whole larger assembly out which would be much stronger so you could apply more torque. Robin is a very talented young man and has a great eye for detail.

I waited so long for this one, sorry you couldn't get them Christian and Vera, you did the right thing by not going further and risk snapping them . I'm going to use JB weld putty to make a circular cup around each plug , then use Kroil penetrant for a few weeks , i will probably wait till summer as the heat will remain in the Heads longer will stripping it down . While waiting for summer i'll save up for a Laser tools 1/4" impact gun , which has 4 torque settings . I wouldn't trust those cheap Chinese snapped glow plug drill out removal kits you see on ebay & Amazon . Better to use quality Cobalt drill bits & quality left hand thread taps and make a left hand bolt to remove a snapped plug piece by piece as it breaks maybe... What a nightmare these glow plugs are , this is why i haven't tried changing mine yet and just using the FBH remote ... take care Graeme

LR realy went out of their way to make things difficult on this engine, even for a routine job such as accessing the glow plugs. I had a stubborn GP on my P38 RR, it tested out with the meter so I left alone, later down the line I used penetrating oil and took it for a good drive, its an easier job if you remove the inlet manifold, it was number 6 GP with the right extensions it can be accessed, it did the job came out with no issue.

Australia mode! Ha ha love it! 😁👍

Helo LR time. A good one. Its not for Discos only. Was leakdown testing a 2009 hilux with 3.0 liter 1KD-ftv engine. Got two plugs out and tested the two cylinders, turned back to the camp leaving the remaing 2 alone. The owner insisted on climbing to the top, froze to death, we are buying another cylinder head.

You guys... you do make me chuckle. It doesnt matter that the job couldnt be completed. If anything makes for a better video. Shows just when to say enough.. "Back to Base camp!" Not like these Toyota drivers that break out in a sweat when thinking of changing the Battery.. I bet there was alot of swesring off camera this week! 😂🤣 Alan. Uk

Now you have a winch, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. :) One day I will put on ours.

Landrover changed the toque spec at the factory when fitting glow plugs for cars after 2007/2008 they were only tightened to 10nm this may be why Fabian’s were looser ? In my 2008 D3 they were like Fabian’s and all came out easily.

So it was -4 deg C here in Yorkshire this morning and guess which LR time video I'm watching... 😱

Anther great video, thanks for showing this as most people just show videos that go well. I think that some people may have panicked when the glow plugs would not move, and tried to force them, and if they had broken off they would have had a far bigger job, and a lot more expensive. I like your climbing mount Everest idea there is a turning back point, witch is good to know. Meany thanks to you both. P.s. in the UK you must have the same number plate on any trailer as the vehicle towing it , but is this different in Germany ? . Do they make you Register your trailers separately? Best regards Chris.

I would like to call it a ‘successful failure’. Smart choice, my friend.

Christian are you a mechanic or just a home grown mechanic ?? I wonder. I envy your knowledge about mechanics in general.

My father in law was a car mechanic for all of his working life, he has now passed. In his retirement right up until the end he offered a service were he would remove stuck fuel injectors and glow plugs. He told me his secret and it was Coca cola. I have never tried it but he was kept very busy doing it. Got to be worth a try anyway...

Well done to walk away .. it would be a nightmare to fix if they break !!

I wish yous two would buy an X5 3.0 Diesel as l think by selling my LR3 l have jumped from one money pit into another - l really could do with yr advice and engineering demonstrations on a BMW (can’t you borrow one? Just to give me a heads up smile please) mind you it was the crankshaft snapping on the black LR3 that determined (frightened) me into changing vehicles, so, yr to blame really - l miss the ride on the LR of all things. Great Video and cheers my heart seeing yous every Sunday

Dear Christian and Vera, so good watching your videos. They always make my brain work and leave more questions than answers. . May I offer a theory and ask a question. I do wonder about penetrating products. I remember starting work when i was 15 and my foreman told me to put some "Plusgas" on a rusty track rod end to loosen it. It didn't work. I then leaned that gases have smaller particles than liquid and this is why a plastic water will not hold gas and this is why pipes are made especially for gas. I know at this point Christian wants to get off the mountain but hag in there. So the big question is if those glow plugs can hold back 200 bar of gas how does penetrating oil ( liquid )thinks it stand a chance of going down the threads. The theory I have about the plugs moving and then stopping is the fact that as they are being moved and the friction is making them hot and swell making them tighter. Would the shock treatment be better. i.e. heat area and then chill plug ??? Just a few thoughts Christian. Keep them coming, brilliant channel.

Spent many happy hours on tdv6 on a commercial basis. Glow plugs. Kent industries do a penetron that is the next best thing to oxy acetylene and on tdv6 I used both. A very small welding nozzle used to heat the aluminium surrounding the plug, lots of heat wrap on anything you don't want to heat and a generous application of the penetron. As it all cools it tended to draw the penetrant down the threads of the glow plug and the difference in temperature of the parts (which you don't get on a warm up driving as all are at similar temperature) allows for the difference in thermal expansion and creates space for lubrication and loosening. Never managed to be beaten by the annoyance factor supplied by land rover. Kent also do a ceramic grease which goes on the threads of the new plugs and ensures the next time is only as fiddly as was designed to be. Always a pity that these very competent and comfortable vehicles were so badly compromised by clever build engineering that was always going to be difficult to engineer out. Very much enjoy your other works. Get that lot into the workshop and go again. I don't have any affiliation with Kent Barnes company but if I find a supplier link I will post it. Good luck and well done.

Hi Vera and Christian, my cousin also does not prefer to change my glow plugs. Maybe at Land Rover 🤔

Shame about the ‘failure’ of changing the glow plugs. But a good video non the less. 👍🏻

Thanks for another great video! Giving an example of when to stop and reevaluate the project may be one of your best lessons to date. Not yelling at your wife is a close second! We had a front hub finally fail after 293,000 kilometers so that replacement and adding wheel spacers is our weekend project. Cheers, Bob & Jill

The perfect example of mechanical sympathy, well attuned to the reality of too-small glow plugs! So not a debacle. A debacle would have been Christian snapping them off, then taking the head off, and then deciding to do more line boring whilst he was at it!

On mine drivers side is dead and passenger works fine. I'm in Australia so car starts fine anyway leaving well alone until engine out or body off.