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Help Needed - 98 E300 car shakes abnormal when cold

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Kajtek1 
#1 ·
Hello, I have a 98 E300 and the vehicles shakes abnormal on a cold start for about 3 minutes. Does anyone know what could be the cause and a solution? Thank you in advance for the help, much appreciated!
 
#4 ·
That's where I would start checking first too. Easy to test with an ohm meter. Good plugs will read about 0.7 ohms. You have no glow plug or check engine light in your cluster lit up?
 
#6 ·
I think the glow plug light/check engine light staying on depends on which glow plug goes out. I've had one glow plug go bad on me two different times (different plugs) and the glow plug/check engine light only lit for one of those occurrences if memory serves.
 
#7 ·
Update - the reason that cause the car to shake was one of the glow plug wire was not fully intact. I have resolder the wire and it seem to fix the issue.

However I have bought new glow plugs as suggested and I am trying to change it out. I am having uses removing the glow plug. I am afraid to break the glow plug if I apply a lot of pressure. Any tips on removing it? It is on pretty tight and I have sprayed wd-40 three times and waited couple of hours and it barely budge.

Thank you everyone that is helping me resolve this. Truly a great community to be in :)
 
#11 ·
I am having uses removing the glow plug. I am afraid to break the glow plug if I apply a lot of pressure. Any tips on removing it? It is on pretty tight and I have sprayed wd-40 three times and waited couple of hours and it barely budge.:)
Only advice I can give you is stay patient with it, of course you are using a certain amount of force but don't get angry with it and start applying a 'shearing' power if you know what I mean. When I changed mine all were okay except the one closest to the firewall, that one was a real PIA. I used PB blaster over and over again and wold try to break it free, never could. I would use more PB blaster and wait a while and try again. On day 2 about ready to give up after letting it sit there for a while I go out to the garage and try one last time, and she broke free very easily. Patience paid off in this scenario hopefully you have the same result - good luck.

And I 2nd the motion with move away from WD-40 and use a better chemical to loosen/break free the glow plug.
 
#8 ·
I would soak it with WD40 repeatedly and wiggle it one way then the other and take your time, but be careful. I mastered it the first two times but now I have broken two and they are stuck in the head.
I should have reamed the holes the first time I did it.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Wd40 is water repellent. Use PBlaster to loosen the plugs.
Read the topics about broken plugs.
Few of them were frozen on the thread, but seems most of them are glued on the long extension with carbon that leak past front flange.
I don't think any penetrant will get there, so careful tries to move the plugs on hot engine is probably the best advice.
Driving for some time with 2 or even 3 bad plugs should not be a big issue, so you can take your time.
#1 can be accessed with manifold on.
We had breaking torque in few topics, so use that info.
 
#12 ·
PBblaster works well when left for long time.
When I was restoring Airstream trailer, it had small screw jacks for skylights. Those aluminium jacks corroded in 20 years of storage and after spraying them with PB , I tried to move first right away and broke it.
Left it overnight with another application of PB and following day 2nd jack moved with finger push.
 
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