glow plug light flickers off and on.

[draaronr]

I did a seach and couldn't find anything. Car starts and runs fine, but on acceleration from a stop the glow plug light flickers and comes on and off, then once you are up to speed it stays off. What do you think it is? It is a 96 e300 diesel. 87000 miles. I am the third owner and just picked it up three weeks ago, so I don't know the maintenance history.

[GregMN]

I had the same experience. I checked the plug at the glow plug relay on the driver's side fender under the hood. It was loose. I plugged it in snuggly and the problem was gone.

Or, the car is trying to tell you that a glow plug is bad.

To test each glow plug I pull the plug mentioned above from the relay and test each lead in the plug (6) with either a test light, or a continuity tester, to ground. Any one that will not ground through the glow plug is bad.

I hope it's a loose relay plug.

If you have to replace a glow plug and you are a DIY don't let the removal of the intake manifold to gain access to the glow plugs intimidate you. 6mm allen socket, T40 torks socket, 2 vacuum lines, 2 electrical plugs. It will take you 30 to 40 minutes to remove the first time. It takes me 20 minutes the second time.

I had to remove the intake (twice) when I converted my '96 E300D to run on vegetable oil.

[Matt L]

Just don't break any of them off in the head.

[draaronr]

do you have a pic of the relay?

[GregMN]

Attached are photos. The relay has a white label on it.

The first shows the relay to the right of the ABS unit and to the rear of the washer fluid bottles.

The second shows the relay with the cover removed and the 6 connector plug to the glow plugs unplugged.

[draaronr]

that's awesome I will try it in the am, thanks a lot

[sokoloff]

Take an ohm meter to the glow plug connector that plugs into the relay and measure each glow plug's resistance. Good plugs will read about 0.6 ohms cold.

Len