How Can Glow Plug Timer Relay Issues Damage Your Mercedes?

Combustion issues not just become one of the common issues but also one of those issues that should not be taken lightly even in luxury cars like Mercedes. Problems in combustion process occur due to variety of reasons, there can be faults in the fuel system or air intake system or the spark plugs. But there is another component whose malfunctioning can also cause combustion issues and has a great role in combustion process mostly in diesel engines. The component is glow plug and the glow plug timer relay. In this article you will know how a bad glow plug timer relay can affect your car badly.

Glow plug and its timer relay

Through the process of combustion, energy is produced to push the piston in the cylinder. To get required amount of energy to make the car run faster, the combustion of fuel and air mixture should take place properly. But the combustion chamber also need a suitable temperature for combustion along with correct proportion of fuel and air. Especially in cold weather or winter season, attaining this suitable operating temperature in the combustion chamber becomes difficult. So combustion process do not start at all and you will not able to start the engine. To overcome this problem, a component called as glow plug heats the combustion chamber to make it attain that temperature. When the chamber is heated, the fuel also get heated and the combustion becomes easier and quicker. When the chamber gets heated to that operating temperature, there will be no more use of glow plug at that time and it is turned off. So a question arises, what makes the glow plug turned off and turning it on and keeps it activated until the operating temperature is attained? There must be something that controls the glow plug. It gives a timer to the glow plug. This controlling is done by glow plug timer relay. This relay deactivates the glow plug after a required heating of the combustion chamber and activates again when required.

Bad effects of a bad glow plug timer relay

Warning lights

Illumination of glow plug warning light would occur if the glow plug timer relay is bad. Even check engine light will be turned on because the combustion of fuel and air mixture would not take place properly, leading to misfiring. Illumination of check engine light can store some trouble codes in the car computer which you have to reset from computer later.

Problems while starting the engine

If the engine has cooled a lot and the temperature of the combustion chamber has fallen much below the suitable temperature for combustion due to a cold weather, then the engine will depend on glow plug to heat the combustion chamber. But if the glow plug is not activating because of faulty timer relay, then the combustion chamber would not be heated and will be very hard to start your car, it may take a very long time for car to start when the combustion chamber is heated up naturally.

Engine performance becomes low

Sometimes, when there is some problem in the glow plug timer relay, it may turn on the glow plug initially but it makes the glow plug turn off suddenly before the engine attains the suitable combustion temperature. This leads to poor combustion process and the engine would lack energy. Even if you manage to start the car but it would not perform properly. Due to poor combustion process there will be high amount of unburnt fuel in the exhaust, the engine would misfire and stall.

Conclusion

If you suspect that your glow plug timer relay is damaged, then better contact your dealer to know about the cause by telling him the noticeable symptoms. Then get your engine serviced in Mercedes service center.

We at Woodinville Sports Cars is one of the most sought after car repair and maintenance facility in the entire area. We have years of experience in looking after European cars like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Mini and Volkswagen.