My service engine light came on and I check the system and it comes up with a PO675 - Glow Plug #5 circuit failure. Does that mean I need to replace the #5 glow plug? If so does anyone know how much or if it it something I can replace?

 

Assuming you've got a CA emissions truck, then odds are you've got a bad glow plug. To find out for sure, unplug the flat 9 pin connector on the inboard side of the passenger valve cover. Grab a multi meter and set it to read ohms. Counting from the front of the motor, the 8th pin back will be for glow plug #5 (2nd to last pin). Test that pin against a battery ground. A reading of less than 2 ohms indicates a good glow plug. If you're reading is higher than that, you need a new glow plug.

 

My truck is a 2000 F250 bought in California. Is this something I can replace myself or is it very involved? I need to get it fixed before I take it to get smogged next month.

 

It's just like replacing a spark plug, except for the part about it being inside the valve cover. Remove the valve cover, pull the wire off the glow plug, unscrew the glow plug, then reverse the procedure to put it all back together. That's it.

Just do not buy autolite glow plugs. The tips tend to swell up which is not good. Stick with Motorcraft or International plugs stamped BERU and you're good.

 

Thanks for your help. Is it ok to drive like this a while? I was hoping to wait until Saturday to fix this.

 

The only thing you're risking is burning out the bulb for the CEL. You could drive it this way for a year and not hurt the motor.

 

Yea, you can drive it. Glow plug are only used for starting purposes.

 

Well the light went out after I cleared the code with my Evolution programmer. Also should I change all glow plugs or just the bad one?

 

That's up to you. The other glow plugs might last another 5 years or go out next week. Hard to tell. It all depends on if you mind pulling the valve covers again if another one trips the light.

 

Depends on the miles and the age of the plugs. If I just replaced them, probably I would do that one bad one. If I had 100K on all of them and they were original, I'd do all at once.

 

Well since I live in lovely California and in their great wisdom to get money from anyone, I have to get my truck smogged. Since the service engine light is on I cannot pass the smog test, which means I have to change out the #5 glow plug. I'll only be changing out the passenger side glow plugs since I know if I only replace the bad one another would soon follow. Has anyone done their's? If so how long did it take? Any thing to be carefull for? I found the pdf file on how to do it so I hope there's nothing else.

 

Did mine recently, once you get the valve covers off its real easy. It took me longer to get in a comfy position than it took to pull and replace them all.

 

Fifthewheel01, your right about trying to find a comfortable way to do it. The last 2 bolts on the bottom towards the back of the valve cover were the hardest for me to take out. Took about 2 hours for me just to do the passenger side. Now just to figure out why my local smog station cannot read the computer. See this post https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...smog-test.html