Any Ideas???

[Cherryboo]

Hi, my T25 1600 diesel is driving me mad PLEASE PLEASE HELP
When i turn on the ignition, the voltage, when tested, shows only 5 volts resulting in me turning on and off loads of times before it will start. When the glow plug relay goes off the voltage goes to a normal 12.5!!!
Its taking ages to start and im scared to take it out in case it wont start again.
I have new relay, battery and have cleaned the earths.
Any ideas please/

Cherryboo

[Oldiebut goodie]

Check that the 50 Amp fuse (below the relay) hasn't been replaced with a piece of wire and also check that the copper busbar connecting the glow plugs isn't shorting out to earth somewhere along it's route as it seems as though you have a serious power drain somewhere in that circuit.

[Cherryboo]

Check that the 50 Amp fuse (below the relay) hasn't been replaced with a piece of wire and also check that the copper busbar connecting the glow plugs isn't shorting out to earth somewhere along it's route as it seems as though you have a serious power drain somewhere in that circuit.

Hi, have fitted a new 50 amp fuse and when tested with a meter the copper bushbar is reading full volts.
Could there be something else that's been overlooked? The problem started when i had a burst gasket on the water pump and the motor got soaked

[California Dreamin]

New and presumably correct battery...pulling down to 5 volts just with the glow plugs there is an obvious issue with voltage drop as I wouldn't expect to see the battery droping much below 11 volts even with this fairly high current draw.
You could check the glow plug draw with an DC amp clamp...just to see if it's not excessive (I think Oldiebut goodie will have the approximate amp draw info).
If you find that the draw is normal then it would appear you have a very poor connection somewhere either earth return or positive feed. There certainly could be a dead short somewhere considering these very low voltage figures.

Martin

[Oldiebut goodie]

[Cherryboo]

Thank you so so much, i think i may know the problem now. I may have the wrong type glow plug for the relay.
Will get some more plugs and give it a try x