I would put 3 new plugs in, top up your battery with a trickle charge and see how the car starts.

Can you live with the dash light on? It is annoying

 

For a different vehicle but this method may work for you.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fPQLgPk5Mdg

 

Make a long drill bit from a bicycle spoke*. With a normal drill turn the remains of the plug into a tube, and refit it. This protects the seat as you drill down into the element with the spoke-drill. Don't go through the end. Dip the spoke-drill in Araldite and reinsert. Remove the old plug. Allow Araldite to set. Fill plug hole with EGR cleaner and leave overnight. Pull element out with the drill bit. Don't be tempted to start the engine to aid the extraction process: too dangerous, for you and the engine.

To be honest I doubt that you will get enough pull with this arrangement. As a last resort you could thread some tube (brake pipe?) over the spoke and tap the plug tip one or two mm into the head. If you can then wiggle it back and forth with the spoke you might succeed.

Not tried.
No guarrentees.
Worth a try?

*. Heat the end of the spoke to red heat and hammer a flat on it. Cool and file the flutes of a drill bit on the end, as below. Reheat and quench in water to harden.

PS: I'm not sure that Araldite will withstand EGR cleaner; best test first.

 

Leave it. It's not doing any harm.

 

Only choice, other than head removal, is to push the broken tip into the cylinder and try and retrieve it through the injector hole. Obviously need something sticky on the end of a bit of bendable wire or plastic tube to grab it. Possibly a magnet (not sure if the plug tip is magnetic) or you could try some of that very sticky mastic used to stick seals around baths. Otherwise use a small tube down the injector hole attached to a vacuum to try and suck it up. All risky because the head will have to be removed if you fail to fish it out.

Think I'd just be inclined to leave it though. Glow plugs don't do much most of the time and I'm sure it'll start on 3 even when it is properly cold. And isn't there a trick to get rid of the warning using a resistor ? Or just connect a glowplug to the wiring and leave it sitting on the valve cover (cover the tip with something).

 

Think I'd just be inclined to leave it though. Glow plugs don't do much most of the time and I'm sure it'll start on 3 even when it is properly cold. And isn't there a trick to get rid of the warning using a resistor ? Or just connect a glowplug to the wiring and leave it sitting on the valve cover (cover the tip with something).

cut a new glow plug short ....and screw it in the plug hole ??

Would that get rid of the error message?

 

Okay; so here's a way to get a decent amount of pull on the element (assuming it is just the element that is stuck).

Start as before (post 4), but drill all the way through the element with your spoke-drill. Thread some flexible steel cable (more bike technology) through the element and recover the end through the injector hole with a piece of wire with a hook on the end. Tie a knot in the cable (a foot from the end) and pull it really tight. Pull the knot up against the element, and keep pulling. If it won't move, withdraw the cable, cut the tapered end of the element of a complete glow plug off, and tap it in until it pushes the stuck element a few mm into the head (be careful not to damage the seat). Rethread the cable and try again. When the knot jambs against the head, swop to a thinner cable, so it's knot will pull through the hole. EGR cleaner will probably help.

If you end up with the element sitting on the piston, I recon Alexie's flexible pipe and vacuum is your best chance (the element is only weakly magnetic). It can also be used to vacuum the debris off the piston.

We don't know why the plug broke. It might not be held that tightly, and failed due to corrosion/poor manufacturing etc. If you leave it there it might fall into the cylinder while the engine is running.


Edit. Just been for a walk and had another idea.
Thread the bike cable through the drilled element and out of the injector hole, solder a small lump of solder onto the cable on the plug side. Cut the cable behind this and pull the cable through until the solder enters the element and jambs in it. Tap the element into the cylinder and pull it out through the injector hole with the cable.

 

I have to say I would be concerned with the risk of metallic swarf getting into the cylinder using some of these techniques. Can't be good for the engine with metal fragments being scraped up and down the bores a couple of thousand times a minute. I could be wrong though

 

If you drill through the tip of the element at slow speed the swarf will fall into the combustion bowl; the solder blob will mostly seal the upper end of the element and limit the debris that falls out as the element is pulled through the cylinder. The swarf/debris can then be vacuumed out as described. True, it's not an ideal solution, but for an amateur, taking the head off is hardly risk free. If you want minimum risk on this one, I think you will just have to pay to have the head lifted.

 

Thats a fair point. Suppose with the hassle it causes when they break, a lot of care when taking them out, including penty of plusgas or similar, would be worth the effort. Though sods law would say that whatever you do it will break at the worst possible time anyway.

 

The trouble with leaving it in place is that the compression will blow it out. My old Freelander had had an injector blown out as it was jammed in place by gummed up goo after suffering blow by for ages. There was an obvious dent in the bonnet where it had happened. I ised the tecnique to remove another stubborn injector but covered it with a rag and ahefty weight which saved it from flying out, so an unsecured glow plug tip would do the same...

 

As i mentioned ....cut one in half and screw it in place

 

Hey guys...

thanks for all your opinions. .. sorry it's taken so long to reply.

What is the chances of tapping the plug through into the cylinder and retrieving it through the the injector hole?

The injector hole is much bigger right?

That idea had crossed my mind the other day and i was ment to run it by you guys.

I must say the other ideas are awesome sounding but seem a little out my league.

Yes the worry of it dropping whilst I'm driving has crossed my mind lots but on the other hand I've had the warning light on for the 6 months I've owned the car and I bought it like it. I just Assumed the plugs needed changing though.

Many thanks

 

If you have a really powerful vacuum source I think you stand a chance, why not practice with another of the old plugs?
Just from photos on the net: the injector hole appears to be perhaps one third larger than the heater. Check before you commit!

 

sorry if i sound thick but why would i need the vaccum source..?

my thinking was if i could fish it out with something magnetic or similar..

 

Sorry to be obscure. The old heater I have is only weakly magnetic. The magnet you use, together with its holder has to get through the injector hole, so must be small. I thought this wouldn't work, but having tried it again I'm not so sure. If you can find a small, powerful cylinder magnet it might. The element won't be directly under the injector hole, so holding the magnet in the end of a flexible plastic pipe seems logical; but a web search may turn up something made for the job.

On the other hand, you may already have a powerful vacuum cleaner. If you improvise a way to couple a small flexible pipe to this, that too might work.

Magnetism and vacuum are the only systems I can think of that will allow the element to move, and align with the injector hole, without falling off.

As I say, practice first.

 

really hard getting stuff out of there, even with a vacuum. I dropped a but down a spark plug hole and tried magnets (sticks to the cylinder, cylinder wall but not the nut) and a vacuum (taped on a narrow tube to get down the hole) and it either did not pick it up, or stuck to anything you don't want it to and the lack of airflow overheated the vacuum motor. And this was on a twin spark so there was two holes to attack.

Head off time....

 

Okie dokie. .. Thank you for clearing that up...

ok so if I took the plug out and poured some duck oil on top of the stuck element and started the engine up. What's the possibility of it popping out?

and what's the chances of it getting sucked in?
or is the plug tapered?

Many thanks

 

I suspect if you knock the tip into the cylinder it will end up in the bowl in the center of the piston.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDgwWDY0MA==/z/8EAAAOSwKIpWEicY/$_1.JPG

This is directly below the injector hole. The glow plug comes in from the side not far from the injector hole.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTQ2WDE2MDA=/z/-aMAAOSw~gRVntfU/$_1.JPG

So a magnet on a stiffish rod straight down the injector hole would only have to fish for the tip in the alloy (non magnetic) piston bowl. Still, be useful to know if someone has managed it, or perhaps someone has an old engine to play with to see if it's possible.

 

I was having a browse on ebay... I've seen you can get an android borescope that connects to your phone... With light. 7 mm

Also found a grabby magnetic tool...

thought combined that may do the job...

just will 7 mm fit in the I hector hole?

 

*injector. ...

just thinking about it, it needs to fit the glow plug hole so the bit can be extracted via injector hole

 

Those grabby tool things are all very good, but assuming you can find one that goes down the hole, you have to consideer that once grabbed, the grabby bits will probably be wider than the hole...

I reckon there's more chance of it blowing out than being sucked in, but who knows.