is this bodgy??

[DUDELUX]

a long story short...

my 2L powered 86 lux doesnt like starting in the mornings so i assumed the glowplugs were farked, so i went and bought new glowplugs, went to my mechanic who told me the plugs were fine, he put a test light on them to show me the lack of power going to the plugs from the relay in the engine bay, so we traced the wires and found the problem in the relay itself, so we took the wire that runs from switch under dash to spotlights on front bar and wired straight to glowplug relay.
so now, when i want to start car, i turn on ignition, flick switch for spottys (i mean, glowplugs), start engine (which now starts perfectly every time), then turn off glowplug switch (although, glowplugs turn themselves off automatically), and away i go.
i can always wire spottys up again so that doesnt bother me.
is this bad?? am i gonna do any damage to my engine??
what are your thoughts??
thanks

[thehanko]

I dont think it will hurt, as your spotty system will be wired for fairly high amps already, but is it not easier to just replace the faulty relay for the glow plugs than rewire your spotties and stuff around everytime to start it.

[YB.LOW4]

its fine and also a very good immobiliser my old lux was the same.

[coxy321]

I dont think it will hurt, as your spotty system will be wired for fairly high amps already, but is it not easier to just replace the faulty relay for the glow plugs than rewire your spotties and stuff around everytime to start it.

x2

Dont create a prolem for yourself mate. Replace the dodgy relay with a high amp one, check the other wiring while your there.

Coxy

[jtraf]

Not sure if the glow plug run 12v in those or if they were 4.5v or something like that????

Someone will know for sure and if so better get the relay fixed before you kill the new glow plugs

[shorty_f0rty]

the 'wilson switch' is a push button activation of the glow circuit which usually just bypasses the glow timer..

i was under the impression that glow plugs only need about 7v to do their job and any higher and you risk damaging them... so if your running 12v through your glow plugs id be careful.

[Vineboy]

the 'wilson switch' is a push button activation of the glow circuit which usually just bypasses the glow timer..

i was under the impression that glow plugs only need about 7v to do their job and any higher and you risk damaging them... so if your running 12v through your glow plugs id be careful.

Just done this to my Triton. Plug timer was letting full voltage to plugs for 2.5 minutes which leads to early death of plugs. Got a $12 push button switch put in on the dash. Beats paying $300-400 for a OEM one.

[coxy321]

90% of my mates have had/do have hilux's (2.4 & 2.8's), and the glow plug timers was a fairly common thing to go in them. All of them had at least one spare in their shed.

Coxy

[tweak'e]

does it have single stage or dual stage glows ?

i'm guessing its single stage concidering its age. in which case a push button switch is the easy fix.
not recommended to bypass it with a switch on later motors with dual stage as they normally run the glows while the motor is running and switch them off once the motor warms up.

[superzuki]

when i bought my mav the bloke had a switch wired up to glow them as the relay went iv been using it unchanged for 2 or so years with no probs.

[DUDELUX]

thanks all, i thought it was bodgy but now i know its a common fix to a common prob, i paid 80 bucks for new glowplugs but found out the old ones are still good so i took new plugs back to the shop and got my 80 bucks back.