Help with glow plug replacement please
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More Turbo
Joined: Aug 2006
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From: Burlington, NC
Help with glow plug replacement please
Have a 2006. Had a CEL and had the code pulled at O'Reilly's and code was a bad glow plug in cylinder #5. My haynes manual says that I should use a Ford Special tool to remove to remove the wireing. I can't afford to damage the wiring to the glow plugs by not using the special tool. Tell me, am I looking the glow plugs here screwed into the inside of the head in the intake valley? If so, is replacing these an easy job to do in the driveway? Would it be a smart move to get the special tool to safely remove the wiring so I don't have another larger problem? And, lastly 
, if this is something that is easy to do in the drive what tips and suggestions could you pass on when replacing these rascals.
Thanks
, if this is something that is easy to do in the drive what tips and suggestions could you pass on when replacing these rascals.Thanks
Lead Driver
Joined: Mar 2010
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From: Woodbridge, Ontario, CA
ASSUMING, you've verified that cylinder #5 glow plug is in fact faulty (by ohm checking), replacement is going to be on the tight side. As a tech wrenching on these, I can tell you that those glow plug harnesses are made out of cheese. Even with the proper removal tool used, I've found them to get damaged very easily as soon as any force is applied. This is compounded by having to access a very difficult cylinder, where the evaporator housing is going to interfere. To answer your question, the best way to access that bank of cylinders is to remove the right side inner fender well. SOAK all four glow harness connections through the rocker arm carrier with lots of PB Blaster or WD-40. Once done, my best advice is to purchase a new glow plug harness and four new glow plugs. You will need a 10mm deep socket and appropriately sized extension to remove the glow plugs. When installing the new ones, they are torqued to 14 ft-lbs.
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More Turbo
Joined: Aug 2006
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From: Burlington, NC
Maybe I'm not looking at what I thought was the glow plug. I thought they were located on the top of the engine, on the intake manifold side of the head. What I'm looking at seems pretty easy to get to. Am I way off base here?
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Josh
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Your looking at the injector harness.
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Joined: Dec 2007
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From: Chico, ca
I bought the nice tool to remove the glow plug harness without damage. 1st one came out. the next 3 came out in pcs. the tool was a complete waste of money IMO. ended up down the path of a new harness anyhow. once they broke the harness was a joy to remove after that. A few minutes of cursing and just pulling on the wires and they all came out. I think the cursing was key. :P
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I had to replace two glow plugs, and did so without replacing the harnesses. I followed a tip I found on here somewhere: Take a 12 or 14 gauge wire about 2' long, and wrap it in the grove where the special tool would go. Twist the wire a couple times to keep it from coming out, and carefully pull on the wire. Takes a good bit of force to pull the connector out, but it worked for me! Might be worth a try...
Lead Driver
Joined: Mar 2010
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From: Woodbridge, Ontario, CA
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10935007
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More Turbo
Joined: Aug 2006
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From: Burlington, NC
Thanks for the reply. Something I haven't been able to find is any info on checking just the glow plug itself to see if it's actually the bad part or not. If that info is in your link I've obviously overlooked it. Can't you just check the glow plug itself for continuity?
Thanks
Thanks
Lead Driver
Joined: Mar 2010
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From: Woodbridge, Ontario, CA
That was the whole purpose of what I posted in the link above, checking all four glow plug circuits at the glow plug harness itself to see if any are out of range, before going to the trouble of removing the glow plugs. If you are insistent upon checking the glow plug itself, simply remove them and put your red lead of the ohm meter to the tip where the harness connects to, and the black lead to the threaded area of the plug and take a reading. As already posted above, a 0.0 to 2.0 ohm reading is the acceptable range. Higher than that, the plug is no good.
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Yes, but you first have to pull out the connector from the wiring harness to the glow plug in question... Then simply check for continuity across the connection on the glow plug and engine block... Should be only a couple ohms
Fleet Owner
Joined: Apr 2012
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From: Spanaway
Yes you should be able to test a plug by it's self.
Here is the data I posted a few days ago and a link to it.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ce-manual.html
Sean 
Here is the data I posted a few days ago and a link to it.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ce-manual.html
All this information comes from the 2006 Service Manual.
Glow plug on time is dependent on oil temperature and altitude. The GPCM will
command the glow plugs on for 1 to 120 seconds. The GPCM does not operate
if the oil temperature is above 55C (131F)
It looks like the GPCM is really 2 units in one box.
Glow plug to ground 0.1~2 Ohms
Glow plug connector to GPCM connector Less that 5 Ohms
Pin #3 on both is the VBattery
Green connector
pin #1 is gp#5
pin #2 is gp#7
pin #6 is gp#1
pin #7 is gp#3
pin 8 goes to the PCM
pin 9 goes to the PCM
Black connector
pin #1 is gp#6
pin #2 is gp#8
pin #6 is gp#2
pin #7 is gp#4
pin 9 goes to the VPwr
Enjoy
Sean
Glow plug on time is dependent on oil temperature and altitude. The GPCM will
command the glow plugs on for 1 to 120 seconds. The GPCM does not operate
if the oil temperature is above 55C (131F)
It looks like the GPCM is really 2 units in one box.
Glow plug to ground 0.1~2 Ohms
Glow plug connector to GPCM connector Less that 5 Ohms
Pin #3 on both is the VBattery
Green connector
pin #1 is gp#5
pin #2 is gp#7
pin #6 is gp#1
pin #7 is gp#3
pin 8 goes to the PCM
pin 9 goes to the PCM
Black connector
pin #1 is gp#6
pin #2 is gp#8
pin #6 is gp#2
pin #7 is gp#4
pin 9 goes to the VPwr
Enjoy
Sean
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