2lte - cycling glows twice ok when cold?

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GTSSportCoupe

GTSSportCoupe

2LTE abuser
10 Year
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Threads
242
Messages
9,533
Location
Victoria, BC, Canada
Hey all,

I replaced my glow plugs this past spring with some Ebay'ers (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-Glow...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cc556c374&vxp=mtr). All spring and summer they have worked fine.

Now that Fall is approaching and the evenings are cooler, sometimes she starts a little rough. Initially it starts smooth, but then I can tell it misses a bit, and some smoke comes out.

I found if I cycle the glow plugs twice, the engine starts perfectly smooth. Is this bad for the plugs though? I don't want to overheat the ends and have them swell or simply burn out.

When I replaced the originals, they were hard to remove. One broke off, and I had to build a special puller tool to remove it (after tapping the broken piece). Was a bit scary. :eek: I remember the previous owners mentioning that they were cycling the glows up to 3 times which I think is what caused the tips to swell. They had to cycle it a lot because there was one completely burnt out plug, plus the engine had a lot of other issues at the time (which I've since sorted out).
 
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When i had my 2lte i had the xact same thing. stuttered if i didnt cycle the key a few times. dont think itll hurt it. u could always put higher voltage plug in and a relay and switch, so you'd never burn em out unles you held em for over 40 seconds. i have the higher voltage ones in my 3b. 10 seconds of glow and good to go everytime.
 
Mine would do the exact same thing on occasion. The second "glow" was always of short duration and it started right up and idled smoothly.
The first time the engine shuttered to a stop, I thought it had finally died but the 2 L-TE Gods were simply toying with me.
 
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I thought I'd post an update to this thread in case anyone uses it as a reference in the future. I found a loose connection in my glow circuit a couple of days ago. A wing nut was loose on a stud at my battery terminal that the glow wire lug connects to. I tightened it up, and now I only need one glow cycle again.
 
Lately my glow plug cycle is extremely short and even doing it two or three times doesn't always help. Glow plugs are new but I'm wondering if the relay might be bad and not holding them on long enough? Does that sounds likely?
 
digitalbuck said:
Lately my glow plug cycle is extremely short and even doing it two or three times doesn't always help. Glow plugs are new but I'm wondering if the relay might be bad and not holding them on long enough? Does that sounds likely?
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More likely an issue with the engine temp sensor. It's located under the intake manifold. It's the ECU (engine computer) that decides how long to glow. It decides how long based on the engine temperature. The engine temp sensor for the 2LTE crosses to tons of north american gas toyota engines.
 
In regards to cycling 2-3 times in cold climates, many glow systems on diesels stay on for quite a while. Even coming back on if engine temps drop too low at low speed.
 
Hey, thanks for that. I'll look into it. Your consistent help is always appreciated!
 
Jarrat said:
I have an issue when I'm 3500-4000kms into my last oil change my cold starts end up needed 2 glow plug cycles. Once I do an oil change it starts without issues cold.
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That's strange. Wonder if the old oil does not seal the rings as well so you loose a bit of compression or something weird like that.

I started this thread when I still knew very little about these engines and had not wrenched on mine much. What I learned a while later is that my rear two cylinder bores in my engine had been rusted up at one point (when the head had cracked in japan and water sat in the motor), so had lowish compression when cold. This is what had always caused my rough starting with only one glow cycle. Engine basically ran on two or three cylinders for the first few seconds. It's also what has caused my above average blowby. Motor ran ok like that for the most part though.

In the process of installing a different short block at the moment. Short block came out of a 2LTE that started perfectly cold and had no blowby, so fingers crossed it works well for me. Doing all the bottom bearings and full seals/gaskets while I'm at it. Along with new timing belt kit and water pump. Shoulda just gone 1UZ for all the work and expense....LOL.
 
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