Temporarily disable glow plugs?

Is there a way to disable/fool/delete the glow plug controller on my 02 Jetta?

I bought this car recently with two glow plugs busted off in the head and a broken gp harness. I would like to get the light to stop blinking at me. Im planning to pull the head and fix the problem correctly but we’re in our busy season right now and I don’t have the time to do it.

Anyway it has the four wire harness. I know I read how to do this somewhere but I can’t seem to find it. Thanks for any help,

Andrew

Here is a list of common reasons the light blinks if you don’t already have it.
Compiled by Mogolf I believe.

Causes of flashing glow plug light

00741 Brake pedal monitoring - implausible signal
01044 Control unit incorrectly coded
16705/P0321 Engine speed sensor - implausible signal
16706/P0322 Engine speed sensor - no signal
16955/P0571 Brake light switch (F) - implausible signal
17653/P1245 Needle lift sender (G80) - short to earth
17654/P1246 Needle lift sender (G80) - Implausible signal
17655/P1247 Needle lift sender (G80) - Open circuit/short to positive
17762/P1354 Modulating piston movement sender (G149) - electrical fault in current circuit
17969/P1561 Metering adjuster (N146) - control difference
17978/P1570 Engine control unit blocked
18020/P1612 Control unit incorrectly coded
18026/P1618 Glow plug relay (J52) - short to positive
18027/P1619 Glow plug relay (J52) - open circuit/short to earth
18040/P1632 Accelerator position sender - voltage supply
17970 - Quantity Adjuster (N146): Upper Limit Reached
P1562 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent

It also flashes when an interface tool has put the ECM in 'basic settings' mode.

There may be more; these are the ones I found documented.

The brake light switch or both brake light bulbs being out at the same time is actually one of the most common causes of a flashing gp light.

While you describe your glow plugs as being in pretty bad shape they may not be causing the flashing light. You may actually have another issue going on here. You need to read the codes and find out exactly what.

Wow thank you. I didn’t realize so many things could effect that light.

That said I’ve scanned it with vcds and all the codes are related directly to the four glow plugs and the gp harness.. The harness is destroyed and two of the gp’s are broken off flush with the head.. Ugh.

Wire all four plug wires together. Then the system can't detect the difference in resistance between them.

are they snapped off flush with the head?
One way to get them out, its a bit tricky but its worked for me every time i did it, was to find a Nut that fits over the glow plug where its broken off, and weld it onto the back, i did it once with a mig but it broke off the 1st time but the 2nd time worked, all the other times i have done it now is with a TIG and worked perfectly as its more controllable. Not much meat to weld to but the heat helps break it free too. Its worth a try vs pulling the head, you will need to anyways if it does not work so no harm trying.

put some tape over the light
srsly, these don't need GPs until it's fairly cold out, and well, it just ain't worth pulling the head to get two of them going. At least hold off until it's time for a timing belt, your turbo gives up, or whatever.

I'd just wire the two that are still good to a high amp momentary pushbutton

I went 12 years with a busted GP, I did as mentioned above , connected all the wires together so there wasn’t a load imbalance, no light.
I check the other 3 GP’s at each oil change till I changed my head out at 394,xxx miles with one that had 150,000 miles on it.
Car now has 417,xxx miles on it.
I did install a frost heater to use in the winter.