Snapped Heater Plug!!

Hi, I was replacing my heater plugs today. 3 out of 4 were fine but one has the 'element' broken off and so that bit is still stuck in the head. Has anyone got any clever ideas as to get the blooming thing out? Assuming/hoping the broken bit can't make its way into the combustion chamber!!

Annoyingly the whole core of the plug is now loose including the top bit where the wire connects.

the same happened to me last month...

snapped clean off, the whole glow plug internals came out and the thread and outside shell of the glow plug stayed in the head.

tried bolt extractors, heat, loads of different ways, didnt come out.
So i just left it there... joined the harness together and loads of electrical tape around it, it starts fine with only 3 plugs, smokes a bit when it starts but soon disappears.

it won't suck anything in, what can happen is spit it out...

leaving it as it is is the cheaper option, or else is removing head and get it out

depends how much is left behind ,if just the tip it could drop in cylinder as it pokes into combustion chamber

My mate changed the heater plugs on his TD4 and 3 came out no probs but the 4th, on the drivers side(front) of the engine was tight. He was lucky to get it out with lots of WD40. He did, however, lose the 10mm socket in the engine bay and has been unable to find it.

jamesmartin said:

depends how much is left behind ,if just the tip it could drop in cylinder as it pokes into combustion chamber

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It's the whole prong that sticks out of the end of the main body. If you know what I mean by that. Can it really drop into the combustion chamber?!!

off course it can ,if still attached to threaded outer may be safe

that's exactly what happened on mine..

as i undone it, it snapped flush cleaned with the head, the glow plug internals came out but the threaded bit and the outer stayed in...

so i've just left it

jamesmartin said:

off course it can ,if still attached to threaded outer may be safe

Click to expand...

bugger........

Try extract engineering he's in Carlisle but travels it's something like £70 to remove snapped plug and £37 an hour travel time or you can go to him check his web site

can you not just run a right sized tap down it enough to be able to fit a bolt that`ll hold it if the bolt head comes flush onto the head somewhere @

or would that also be a bad idea ?
or maybe drill it all the way through then tap it/fit a bolt with locktight ?
but having the piston at the top AFTER and poking a thin magnet on a stick down the hole for swarf removel......
or i give up..

easye1 said:

can you not just run a right sized tap down it enough to be able to fit a bolt that`ll hold it if the bolt head comes flush onto the head somewhere @

or would that also be a bad idea ?
or maybe drill it all the way through then tap it/fit a bolt with locktight ?
but having the piston at the top AFTER and poking a thin magnet on a stick down the hole for swarf removel......
or i give up..

Click to expand...

no a bad idea, better to use a left hand drill bit, or a bolt extractor.



I bought a set a while back, not cheap but a useful tool.

fergus123 said:

no a bad idea, better to use a left hand drill bit, or a bolt extractor.

I bought a set a while back, not cheap but a useful tool.

Click to expand...

I got a set and more all from my engineering days, all tucked away in my old snapon box (did`nt like the traditional toolmakers chest)

but thinking along the lines of - if you put an extractor down that slim sidewalled bit left in the head, it just may swell it out tighter in the threaded portion. ??
I suppose if you drilled it out to the core drill diameter of the heater plug thread, in theory you could grab hold whats left and just pull it out something like a soft threaded insert sort of thing...
clean the thread up carefully with a tap, then fit a copper greased coated new heater plug.

In an Ideal world praps.....

yeah if you were tapping anything do it with a reverse thread!!

Last time I had a snapped glow plug it was on my mercedes. I welded a tap to a long handle and tapped the hollow tube of the plug to a suitable size. Wound a bit of threaded rod into the glow plug. Big weight with a nut on top of the threaded rod and used it like a slide hammer to pull the plug out.
It took some hefty whacks but it came out.