Agreed, this should be a new rule . I'll put it in mine once I'm done with this--all six of mine are originals.

Those in Sacramento, beware...of the jet-black E-class prowling the streets with red glowplugs under the door handle. Haha. love the idea.

__________________
99 E300 TD -- sold
01 540i 6 spd

Bio Power,

Get some PB blaster from: auto parts store,industrial supply house,wal-mart...
anywhere and soak the offending plug remains every 12 hours for at least 24hrs.
Gently apply heat (remember you're dealing with an aluminum head) and EASE
The Booger out!

I'd take your's out and put anti-seize in them before they get too stuck. $10 for a intake gasket is all it costs.

I tried drilling and it almost wrecked the head. I shoulda taken the head off first;.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

BioPower,

I had the same problem as you. I took the car to a local shop to have the glow plugs done. Before they started the job we both knew that there could be a problem getting the GPs out...but I had a couple bad plugs which made the car slow to start so the work needed to be done. The tech was able to get 5 of 6 plugs out of the head with great effort. He soaked the plugs with PB blaster and wiggled them over several days. The threads were not the issue...the problem was carbon on the ends of the plugs. The 6th plug was stuck and finally gave up...just like yours. The choice was to leave it there (which would trigger the GP light and I'd have some smoke at start up) or pull the head. I figured that I wanted to get the job done right...and also who wants to buy a car with a stuck GP down the road. So I had them do the whole job. I think there is a risk with drilling into the head. If the head gets boogered up then what do you do?

Chuck

I second the suggestion that you get some PB-Blaster pronto and don't try to remove it until that's had a chance to soak overnight. WD40 does nothing in comparison to PB.

Then, if you have an easyout stuck in it I would try chucking that up in an electric drill/screwdriver that has a variable torque adjustment (which has the "impact gun effect").

I have found that when all else fails the impact gun frees stuck fasteners better than anything. My cordless drill has 5 settings for use as a screwdriver with varying amounts of torque applied before it releases. It acts just like an air impact gun. I would try using a similar tool, first set to the lowest torque letting it pop-pop-pop on it and then increase the torque if necessary and try again until it breaks free...I'd bet that would work.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

You have 3 options:

1) Leave it in (I wouldn't, if its not being held by the thread then you risk it coming out under pressure).

2) Attempt to drill the body of the plug, and extract it with various bits.

3) Remove the head to get it out.


If you do 2) and fail, then you have to proceed to 3). If you don't do 2), you still have to do 3).

I would do 2)

#2 also has the high risk of drilling into the head. That has happened to me and by some miracle the head was not trashed.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

1995 e300d 180,000

Three thoughts:

1. I'm curious to know about when you tried to remove the stuck gp. Did you use a deep well socket? If so, when you started turning ccw, did you just start swinging or did you apply a quick little jolt to get a sense of how tight it was? This question is phrased oddly, but as a factory trained schwinn mechanic, I learned that a quick, very short snap of the wrench in a ccw direction can often break the nut/bolt free. This method also works wonders with lug bolts/nuts. (I learned this from a gearhead friend of mine who easily removed stubborn lug nuts I failed to budge. He impressed the girl. I didn't.)

2. White vinegar is mildly acidic and might help dissolve the corrosion between the dissimilar metals of the gp and the head. I would try prayers, PB, and white vinegar over several days before attempting to remove any gp.

3. Kudos to NHDOC. I really like the idea of using a cordless drill clutch as a way to break the nut/bolt/gp free. Liberal/long-term soaking + this method tried before any serious wrenching is an obvious solution. Do this FIRST. Oh yeah, do this FIRST.

Bio - I feel your pain. Since I am currently living this nightmare, let me share what I have learned.

1. Take a dremel with cut off disk and cut that rod sticking out of the plug off flush so you can drill it out.
2. Here is where I screwed up, or at least where I think I did. I drilled mine out too much, did not hit the head, but did not leave enough metal for the extraction tool to hold onto. I drilled out to 3/8" which I think is too much, try to maybe only go 9/32 or 5/16 max. I tried every extraction tool I could find, and none worked very well except one, and I had to go see my diesel mechanic buddy to get it, Snap-On makes a good, scratch that, sweet extraction tool. My problem was I drilled out too much, when I put extraction tool in and turned, I sheared off the threaded part of the glow plug, and now I have my glow plugs stuck in the chamber, yea, got the treaded part out, but the remainder is stuck in the head, so I am now pulling the head, oh joy.

I will go bye my mechanic buddy and take a picture of the extraction tool that will work. Have no idea how much it costs, but this will work that I am sure of. Do not even waste your time of money with the other extraction tools.

I can not tell you how much this sucks for me, and I truly feel bad for you. Will post some pictures later of this tool for you to try to find.

BioPower

I would leave it well enough alone, she will start the best on 5 plugs. You could even rig up something to the existing plug lead to fool the light into thinking that everything is ok with that plug possibly linking the cable to the next good one etc there would be some way around it.
Grease up the threads of the remaining 5 and drive away at her, drilling at heads is dangerous and once a head is removed off an engine im never quite sure that they are perfect again.
Maybe there will be a need to remove the head in another 100,000 miles down the road and then you can kill 2 birds with the one stone.;

My advice live with 5 plugs anything else is going to cost time and money and for what benefit really.

Just my thoughts and i sympathise with you,

McCool300TD

__________________
1988 190E Sold
1996 C230K Sport Sold
His: 98 E300TD Estate, 7 seater, Avantgarde, Silver, Black cloth, parameter steering, dipping rvm, folding mirrors, rain sensing wipers, pentagon tints, 17" Elegance wheels. 298K
Hers: 93 300TD, 7 seater, Grey MB Tex pearl blue metallic, 15" 8 hole alloys, OTG, Cruise, not much else 220K

That I disagree with. I have had mine out and haven't noticed a thing different.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Since he's already compromised it and said he has an easyout stuck in it I think it is reasonable to try and remove it...like I suggested above, I'd soak with PB blaster overnight and chuck the easyout in a impact drill/screwdriver to break it free...had he not already gotten to this point I would agree that it would probably be OK to just run it on 5 good ones (especially given the temperate climate where he is) but if it were me I couldn't live with it knowing it was broken off in there, so that's how I would try to remove it. Impact tools work best.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Speed, if the threaded part is out why not start it up and let the compression blow the rest out through the hole?

I bet it would shoot out like a bullet.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Hi

Well didnt realise he had started drilling at it, but hey i would still try and live with 5 if she was still going to hold.
Maybe it hadnt been tightened well enough from before and there was some sort of blow by that gunked up the threads.

BioPower best of luck with it, hopefully you can do without your wheels cos with head off she could be off road for a few days.

McCool300td

__________________
1988 190E Sold
1996 C230K Sport Sold
His: 98 E300TD Estate, 7 seater, Avantgarde, Silver, Black cloth, parameter steering, dipping rvm, folding mirrors, rain sensing wipers, pentagon tints, 17" Elegance wheels. 298K
Hers: 93 300TD, 7 seater, Grey MB Tex pearl blue metallic, 15" 8 hole alloys, OTG, Cruise, not much else 220K

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