I live in NH and the nights have been getting cooler. On cold mornings my truck seems to take two or three cycles to fire up. I think that the glow plugs are original. Batteries are new and it starts first crank when warm. I guess the question is how long is the life-span on glow plugs and could it be something else causing the poor starting in cold weather?

 

How many miles? You can check the glow plugs to see how much they Ohm out. Doing that will be a good indicator of if they're good or not. I believe they are supposed to read 2.3ohms, its been awhile but i think thats what they correct workin ohm load is supposed to be.

Cowboy Steve

 

95.000 on a 97

 

Hey Jason I have the same problem and the same year and mileage, rather than trouble shoot the exact problem I am just doing a complete glow plug replacement.......... Even on a low mileage truck its still probly time since its still 10 years old and lots and lots of starts, the parts are 320 dollars frm the Powerstroke Shop............... I hope to have them in this weekend.......

 

I would change all 8 glowplugs and the GP Relay to be safe I dont like to mix and match plus its not a bad job and fairly cheap DIY and your looking at about 80.00 for all GP's and 60.00 GPR...so total $140.00 about there. Well worth it starting like it should. Autozone has the GP for 10.00 piece usually in stock, make sure they are Motorcraft brand/Beau...do not use any others. I got the Relay from NAPA because they are real heavy duty.
------------------Jeremy
----------------------------

 

thanks for the info. I will probably do the same thing. It never hurts to get new stuff. Let me know how the install goes.

 

How come yours was so expensive? Unless you bought new valve cover gaskets which isnt necessary because they're reuseable.
-------------Jeremy

 

NAPA has a HD GPR? How much did that run ya Jeremy?

 

Anybody know the part # for the motorcraft GPs. I checked Autozones website & all they are listing is Bosch plugs.

 

I guess I did not need to buy new gaskets , I just figured that the truck is 10 years old and never had the gp's done so with that in mind I bought everything so as to go another 10 years on the new gp's.......... BTW at my local dealership my parts were over 500 dollars ,I got it for 320 at the Powerstroke shop.........

 

My gp's are out in the garage, Ill post that part# for ya tomarro......... My new gp's are motorcraft's and made in Ireland, thought that was kinda neat being made in Ireland

 

GP part numbers would be much appreciated. Also, who has the part number for the NAPA heavy duty GPR? Please list.

 

I believe the motorcraft number is ZD11 (make sure it says Beru, Germany) on it. Apperantly those are the good ones...

They should all say that I would think though

 

zd-11 is correct or zd-10 they are all the same.

heavy duty stuff in here

 

Check ebay, I just bought a set of zd-11's for $35 shipped to my door. You can get a new HD GP relay for less than $30 at most auto part stores. Autozone MR99, NAPA GPR 109 or GPR 110. Ask for the part number instead of vehicle specific parts, or the price goes up. These relays usually last about 2-3 years and are easy to change.

Here's a link to a GP Relay that will last a long long time:
http://guzzle.rbmicro.com/s_gpr.html