glow plug relay clicking.

[alderson95]

i went to start my 1996 gmc 6.5l td today and the wait to start light came on like usual and went off. but while waiting to start i kept hearing a clicking knoise, from the glow plug relay. nedless to say my truck wouldnt start. i took a good glow plug i had in the truck and pluged it to #1 glow plug wire and turned on the ingition. the glow plug didnt heat up i tried it on all the wires, nothing. i was woundering whats wrong with it. also can i swap it to a manual glow plug relay at all.

[DennisG01]

Did you ground the glow plug that you tested with?

Try cleaning and tightening the connections at the glow plug relay. Could be a bad relay, but try cleaning/tightening first. I have seen threads about people changing out to manual, but generally speaking the relay is pretty reliable. There's a good chance the one you have is original - can't argue with that lifespan.

[trbankii]

Had a similar situation when I bought my '93 - the glow plug relay would "chatter" and not properly engage. New relay fixed it right up!

[alderson95]

well i know for a fact that the glowplug relay is broke. i checked all my ground charged my battires and nothing so i took the relay out and smashed it. i had gone to autozone and gotten a new 1 earlyer and put it in and works perfect. i can complain with the price $50. but while putting in the relay i noticed a fule leak. so not had to fix. and opon that i saw a oil leak on the main line. i get under to fix it and i see my cv joint had grease all on the fender weld. the boot was broken and the ball berings in the joint were gone. and the lower a-arm bushings were shot. i asked my girlfreind if she knew about it. she told me o well me and nichole were in her paster and i hit a rock. i asked how fast were u going. she said under 50. im so p***ed, so needless to say i have a new 06 bmw to drive to work.

[SIG220]

As DennisG01 mentioned when you pull a glow plug and test it it has to be grounded. When the plug is in the block it is grounded through the block, but when you pull it out, hook it up to a wire and try it it is no longer grounded. Glad to know its fixed now, but keep that in mind in the future when troubleshooting glow plug issues.