300D
Veteran Member
Hi All,
Man did I bugger a glow plug. I acquired my 2003 Jetta Wagon 5-speed in February. Decided to tackle a bad glow plug in about 30 degree outside temp. First mistake. Yanked too hard on the bad glow plug. Second mistake. It spun and spun without coming out. Ok, so I shelved that idea till warmer weather. Plug was still holding and car was still running fine. May came around and I thought I would give it another go. Read everything I could about stuck glow plug repair scenarios. Decided to try drilling it out. I have a lot of shop experience and thought I was well qualified to try and tackle a procedure that required care and precision. Carefully stepped through ever increasing drill bit sizes. Plug wouldn't come out. Contacted the venerable Frank06 for advice and help and what I could buy off him if I completely failed at my endeavor. He is as helpful as everyone says he is.
Anyway, long story short. I didn't get the angle correct when doing my drilling and drilled a kind of angled hole into the head. Third mistake. Might be my lowest moment trying to fix anything in my life. Plug/hole leaked when started. So, I decided to cut my losses and just plug the thing up until I could replace the whole head. I cut some threads in this ridiculous hole that I made, cut off a glow plug to match the depth of my new hole(fourth mistake), then JB welded/ threaded the cutoff plug into the hole. And it worked. Glow plug/hole no longer leaked.
I then set about replacing the clutch and installing a new timing belt (from Frank06).
All good for the next 2000 miles. Then this past week I was on my way home from a long trip and I heard a thppt, thppt, thppt sound. Yep. A leak had developed. Drove about 5 stressful minutes like this till I had a safe place to pull over and sure enough the repair had failed. The thread and JB had held, but the core had blown out of the sawed-off glow plug.
I have redone the repair with a solid inch long stainless bolt, so I am back running. (I really really really want to replace the head, but just don't have the time at the moment.)
My question is, did running for 5 minutes with a loud leak from glow plug hole cause any damage? Car feels like it is running fine, if a tiny bit rough at startup. Which might not be new. What if I had run for 30 minutes? Is there damage that can be caused by a leak in the cylinder like this? Valves? Low compression causes a problem? I really really really need this car for a 450 round trip once a week commute for this fall. Thanks for any input.
Man did I bugger a glow plug. I acquired my 2003 Jetta Wagon 5-speed in February. Decided to tackle a bad glow plug in about 30 degree outside temp. First mistake. Yanked too hard on the bad glow plug. Second mistake. It spun and spun without coming out. Ok, so I shelved that idea till warmer weather. Plug was still holding and car was still running fine. May came around and I thought I would give it another go. Read everything I could about stuck glow plug repair scenarios. Decided to try drilling it out. I have a lot of shop experience and thought I was well qualified to try and tackle a procedure that required care and precision. Carefully stepped through ever increasing drill bit sizes. Plug wouldn't come out. Contacted the venerable Frank06 for advice and help and what I could buy off him if I completely failed at my endeavor. He is as helpful as everyone says he is.
Anyway, long story short. I didn't get the angle correct when doing my drilling and drilled a kind of angled hole into the head. Third mistake. Might be my lowest moment trying to fix anything in my life. Plug/hole leaked when started. So, I decided to cut my losses and just plug the thing up until I could replace the whole head. I cut some threads in this ridiculous hole that I made, cut off a glow plug to match the depth of my new hole(fourth mistake), then JB welded/ threaded the cutoff plug into the hole. And it worked. Glow plug/hole no longer leaked.
I then set about replacing the clutch and installing a new timing belt (from Frank06).
All good for the next 2000 miles. Then this past week I was on my way home from a long trip and I heard a thppt, thppt, thppt sound. Yep. A leak had developed. Drove about 5 stressful minutes like this till I had a safe place to pull over and sure enough the repair had failed. The thread and JB had held, but the core had blown out of the sawed-off glow plug.
I have redone the repair with a solid inch long stainless bolt, so I am back running. (I really really really want to replace the head, but just don't have the time at the moment.)
My question is, did running for 5 minutes with a loud leak from glow plug hole cause any damage? Car feels like it is running fine, if a tiny bit rough at startup. Which might not be new. What if I had run for 30 minutes? Is there damage that can be caused by a leak in the cylinder like this? Valves? Low compression causes a problem? I really really really need this car for a 450 round trip once a week commute for this fall. Thanks for any input.
