Glow plug warning

[chooke]

Jeep Grand Cherokee 2014 Diesel (100k km)

Recently the glow plug symbol on the instrument panel has been intermittently flashing after starting the engine and remains flashing while driving. However the car runs well with nothing unusual to note.

It doesn't do this all the time and most days the symbol doesn't flash at all. There is no fault code either. It has me scratching my head given it is summer with most days over 30 degrees.

Interestingly, I had the same issue four years ago but that was during the winter peak. That time there was a fault code pointing to cylinder 4 but it resolved itself after a couple of weeks.

What could be causing the symbol to flash? Is it something to start worrying about?

Thanks

[drover]

Start at the beginning, pull the engine cover off and see if any wiring has been worn away, it does happen, then check connectors as it does sound like a short, a glow plug after engine start would throw a code I would think....... I'll have a look in the book, since its raining not much else to do..

[chooke]

Originally Posted by drover

Start at the beginning, pull the engine cover off and see if any wiring has been worn away, it does happen, then check connectors as it does sound like a short, a glow plug after engine start would throw a code I would think....... I'll have a look in the book, since its raining not much else to do..

Thanks for that. I'll have a look under the cover.

[bjm]

My sons 2014 does exactly the same ,flashing glow symbol! Goes away after a few minutes.No codes.

[chooke]

I checked under the engine cover and wiring to all glow plugs seem sturdy.

What concerns me now is that the glow plug light flashing has become more regular, about 4 out of every 5 times on each trip.

Not sure if it is related, but I also noticed my fuel consumption has risen. Before it would mostly average 10kms/L (city driving) but now it averages high 11s to low 12s. It's not a huge difference but has been sustained for a while now.

Could one of the glow plugs be remaining on and causing the increase in consumption? Of course that begs the question of why is the glow plug operating at all in this summer heat.

Cheers

[drover]

Remiss of me not to post earlier, have a look at the glow plug module, thats the big relay looking thing hanging off the suspension tower on the drivers side, check that the plug isn't grotty, certainly seems like a circuitry problem as you would have codes if the glows fired up while running, what are you using as a code reader, a standard OBD reader may not see the code if its a Chrysler code....... high fuel burn could be the MAP sensor needing a clean,

[layback40]

Originally Posted by drover

Remiss of me not to post earlier, have a look at the glow plug module, thats the big relay looking thing hanging off the suspension tower on the drivers side, check that the plug isn't grotty, certainly seems like a circuitry problem as you would have codes if the glows fired up while running, what are you using as a code reader, a standard OBD reader may not see the code if its a Chrysler code....... high fuel burn could be the MAP sensor needing a clean,

Do they have mechanical relays in the WK? The KJ uses power transistors & 5v GP's. I think Chrysler had all the geeky engineers in a group trying random ideas in the KJ. There is an OBD number for each GP.