We're taking care of my friend's poorly car,  as it broke down right before she was due to leave town for two weeks.  It's a 2008 Kia C'eed with a 1.6l Tdi.  The car had started smoking from the engine bay, rattling like a washing machine, and losing power.  The garage says a glow plug popped out of the cylinder head, causing some damage to the engine (the nature and degree of it I don't know yet, as they are still dismantling the engine and figuring it out).  I Googled it, investigating whether or not it was a thing with Kias or anything else, and found only two cars on the entire internet with similar problems: a 2003 VW Jetta in Missouri and a 2010 Vauxhall Zafira.

 

I'm just curious -- has anyone here ever heard of glow plugs flying out of the engine?  Is there an underlying cause, or is it random bad luck?

Edited 21 May, 20188 yr by Ardbeg

It was probably the end piece of the glow plug rather than the whole thing. So 10-20mm of ceramic falling into the cylinder head. Not good I'd imagine. Since it's a 10yr old c'eed it might be a write off if the damage is bad.

That and IMO it's unfair to blame this on Kia; glow plugs are one of those components that pretty much everyone buys in.

Who's blaming Kia?  I was merely wanting to know if anyone had ever come across this problem in any type of car and what the outcome was.  If anyone is to blame, it could be previous owners for not properly servicing it but maybe not.  Maybe it is one of those random things.  No idea.  As I said, the internet only had two similar incidents in totally different cars. 

 

The garage says the entire glow plug was ejected from the engine, not just a part of it.

I had a Champion spark plug dump its centre electrode straight through a piston crown on a 125 twin Honda at 13000 rpm. End result the same. Smoke, vibes, no power. Never used Champion again.

10 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

I had a Champion spark plug dump its centre electrode straight through a piston crown on a 125 twin Honda at 13000 rpm. End result the same. Smoke, vibes, no power. Never used Champion again.

 

Was the motorbike a write-off afterwards or was it fixable?

Engine was rebuilt. That cylinder and piston were wrecked of course, but the rest survived.

It sounds like my friend may have dodged a bullet.  According to the garage, the flying glow plug has only damaged some replaceable engine electrics, though the jury is out until they put the car back together and see whether or not it works.  At least they're saying they didn't see damage on cylinder or pistons.

 

Their theory is that someone put the glow plug in wrong.