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Glow plug light coming on over bumps.

Piper

New Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
28
Hi all,

I'm out in Malawi visiting my wife who has been working here for the past 8 months. She has a '97 Prado diesel that we shipped over from the UK. Since arriving I'm trying to sort out a few wee niggles but a new issue started just today that I'd like some help with.

Basically whilst driving on some badly corrugated roads, I noticed the glow plug light flick on and off briefly. It did it again a few moments later. Then when on a recent drive we went over some speed bumps (pretty severe ones by UK standards) the glow plug light came on again and then the engine died. It immediately restarted and was going fine however the light did flicker on once again when on a bumpy, dirt road.

I was thinking that the initial corrugated road has caused a connection somewhere to become lose, maybe at the ignition (I thought this based on how much the dash vibrates on that kind of surface) but thought I'd ask first. I have very limited tools here (basically 2 screwdrivers) so before I start to look into it, I'd ask for some advice. Car electronics are far from my strong point and auto electricians are very hard to find here.

Any help greatly appreciated. I leave for the UK again early next week and I'd prefer to get this sorted before I leave since the roads around here aren't somewhere you want to lose power steering, etc on, should the engine cut out.

Thanks,
Ryan
 
It does sound like an ignition system contact from what you describe, as that is one thing that explains the glow plug light and the temporary cutting out. I wonder could it be as simple as a loose earth on the battery, could that lead to the ignition circuit reconnecting in a split second..

Vibration from corrugations will loosen things you didn't even know existed, but my guess is something simple
 
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