Around 100k would be a good time to replace your glow plugs. Of course you can always check the resistance of each of them but they are somewhat cheap enough to replace and really help get you into closed loop much quicker. If you check the you want to see less than 1 ohm

 

For diesel engines right?

 

Ah no. If you own a second gen gas IS take a look on throttle body. They will be located underneath so to speak of the throttle body. They are there. Two of them. If you need help finding them use the pic below. They are installed into the coolant hose system.

 

Thanks, I know where the TB is, so it shouldn't be hard for me to find.

My heat has always been slow to come on (even after coolant replacement). Maybe my glow plugs are bad.

 

It will help with engine heat time and depending on how bad they are immensely possibly. That's what they are there for is to bypass some of the coolant to them to heat up engine temp faster to get the car out of open loop asap. So then a byproduct of that is when the engine is warmer so is your heat available inside the car. Ohm them out to because they maybe ok but if you do replace them I believe they are around $40 a piece. Been sometime before I actually had a car come in that needed them but it isn't to expensive.

 

How often do you see the ECT sensor go bad? I hate the location though.

 

not that often now that most of the bad ones have had them replaced under recall for the fuel pressure sensor issue. That is not a bad location at all. I'll give you a secret as to why. Remove the two wiper arms. If stuck you made need a sst but once the wiper arms are removed remove the cowling. Perfect access

 

Okay, you've brought up an interesting point in that, since I've owned this vehicle (a 2013), and the temps dip into the 30's (Deg. F), it takes forever to warm up especially if going down hill. As an added thrill, when stopped at a light with the HVAC on, it goes from 765 RPM to like 1200 RPM, which can easily exceed the brake force used to stop the car and suddenly you're moving ahead if MORE BRAKE isn't applied.

If a parts swap helped reduce that interval, I'm in. The facts, it's done it since 2017 when it had 51,000 miles and it's a California car (does it have them?). That said, the fuse panel shows four glow plug heaters, two are marked Diesel only, and the other two are 50 Amp fuses built into the fuseable link busbar (GLW PLG1 50A & GLW PLG2 50A).

Knowing they would never spec a fuse for a heater element at max amps, I'd guess the elements are capable of 400 to 500 watts which seems pretty ridiculous given the wire size vs fuse rating. Based on that, the ohms of resistance math places the heaters in the 3 to 6 ohm category.

Until someone says otherwise, it looks like one should expect about 3 to 6 ohms which is supper low (but that's what the math says even de-rating it to 35A max).
35A x 13VDC = 355 Watt heaters X2 heaters => ~700 watts....
50A x 13VDC = 650W times two units <--> which is not reasonable IMO while trying to heat your butt, run the engine, defrost the windows, heat your mirrors and all that jazz... Remember, these have a 150 Amp alternator but that doesn't mean the on board computers can't manage the power distribution while you get warm

87343-30010 - Plug, Water By-Pass Glow

/thread return, end ramble

 

when check the resistance of course engine off (can't believe I would have to say that but then again some people lol) you want to a max of 1 ohm. The reason for the fuse sizes being so large is yes theritcally the glow plugs could use that much power bit here's the thing. The computer is acting like a variac transformer limiting the output of power to them based on a couple of readings from varies sensor like ambient temp, coolant temp, that sort of thing. So yes they could draw that much it's just the pcm is essentially a variac transformer

 

I am curious as to anyone who has replied to this thread and anyone who hasn't was aware of the glow bypass plugs? Was this news for anyone or has this been talked about in the past?


I originally posted this weekly maintenance tip because i had to change a set out this week and thought since it was awhile since i had to the price wasn't in my head about the individual plugs and what they cost. I just posted because the cost of parts I feel is reasonable but it sounds like no one or very few knew that many no diesel engines use these. Just want to post reasonable part cost items that make a difference for people.

 

It's the first time I've heard about them for non-diesels.

Do you have to drain the coolant to replace them? I still haven't had a chance to check the resistance yet.

 

So I'm just being lazy by not putting pants on and checking the two examples I have downstairs, but...

Is this the same between manual and automatic cars? I know there's something going on in that area that makes it easy to visually identify a manual trans car, but always just assumed it was coolant lines going back to heat up the auto trans fluid.

 

Just saying from an electrical standpoint, 1 ohm with 13+ VDC would be huge load no matter how you switch it so I personally find that value to be too low to be plausible. JM2C as It's one step short of placing a screwdriver across the battery posts and we all know how that goes. That said, nearly all heaters increase in resistance the hotter they get so it wouldn't be surprising to see it 6 ohms and rise. Otherwise it becomes a slow blow fuse.

Car is due for plugs soon, I'll take a look and see what I find.

And to whoever asked about coolant, yes, there will be loss.

 

I personally thought they were only in diesel engines, so this was new info for me. I currently have a little over 70K on my 2010 IS350, I have no issues so far with warmup, but I also live in a part of California that doesn't often get cold. And what we consider cold is very subjective because some of my friends and family who live in other parts of the state tell me what I consider cold is shorts weather where they live.

Unlike @2013FSport I've always been bad at math, thus stayed away from anything that it involves it such as EE etc. so my understanding of voltage, ohms, VDC is very limited so the screwdriver reference was helpful!

 

My car has had 2 previous owners, the first began as a lease in CA and then another here. It makes me wonder if all states have block heaters but return to ULE-II emissions standard stuck to the 2IS that is happy to run in open loop mode every time someone's right foot gets aggressive. I'll go out on a limb and say that it is not out of the question that they all have them to meet the standard. Which as you know is nothing like a diesel engines glow plug that heats in or near the combustion chamber, this heats the coolant.