My son and I have acquired a '05 Liberty CRD with a bad crank bearing (happened when the turbo blew) and a sweet new engine with 46k miles on it to drop in. I haven't checked yet, but I'm betting that this engine still has the ceramic glow plugs which always worked great for me in the cold with our old Liberty CRD (which we no longer have). It would start right up down to 0°F no problem. I replaced them in that old Liberty at about 150k miles after I heard about the problems with the ceramic plugs breaking off and causing internal engine damage. The 7V Etechnos that I replaced them with sucked. Anything below 15-20°F and I had to keep the block heater plugged in and this seems to be normal for these plugs based on other people's experience and feedback from GDE. Since this new engine I've got has such low mileage I'm seriously considering keeping the ceramic plugs in for now since they work so well. I've read a lot of posts on CRD forums about the ceramic plugs having problems, but not a single one of them was actually written by someone that had a plug break off in the engine out of the blue on them. All anecdotal reports. Now Chrysler did discontinue the ceramics and replace them with 5V steel plugs so that does make me think that this was a real problem, but I'm just wondering if there's anyone out there who has personal experience with the old ceramic plugs breaking.

I like to air on the side of caution! I tend to remove or replace possible problematic parts once identified or when they have known issues and are not cost prohibitive...
That being said; based on some of the dire warnings posted and the possibility of catastrophic engine damage as of the results of a failed ceramic glow plug, they got my attention!
Being proactive, and since ID parts put their 7v Etecno Glow Plugs on sale this month, I went ahead and ordered a set and plan on replacing them ASAP....

I certainly believe it is better to be in the "I rather be safe than sorry" group...than in the "Well I told you so" group!
Just glad I do not live in the very cold winter climates areas and have to weigh the performance factor of GP's into a decision...

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VW recalled their ceramic glow plugs. They didn't spend all that money for fun but clearly felt, that with a much larger user base, there was a very real risk of a class action suit. Bosch also stopped manufacturing them. I think you can treat it as a real risk but I've no clue what the probability of damage is. All I can contribute is that I've replace 6 failed ceramics on my Jeep over 10 years and they have all been split up their length but no missing pieces.

As far as the etecno1 plugs are concerned I contacted them to enquire what temperatures they'd tested them down to on our vehicle. They never responded which doesn't instill confidence in their product

The early batches from Etechno may not have been that great, but they have redesigned things and I believe they are better now.

As one who has done the repairs and seen the carnage caused by the ceramics... Get them out of there, they are a ticking time bomb.

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Bad noises = REALLY bad things.

Better may not be good enough if you have to tolerate temperatures going down to -20F. I don't tend to use the CRD much in the winter but it's nice to know it's at least going to fire up if I need it.

Someone suggested this in another thread but I'm beginning to think that 5V plugs with summer and winter tunes is a good compromise.

You could probably try using the 5v glow plugs with the 7v programming. They'll burn a bit hotter and probably reduce their life. But during the warmer months you might be able to extend their life by removing the glow plug relay.

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At -20F chances are the block heater is your only hope even with ceramics. Hell my bmw gets pissy at 0 and its a gasser

Now that sounds like a reasonable idea but it means being stuck with a CEL like back in the "good old days" when we all had our MAFs unplugged.


Sometimes you just don't have the option to use the block heater and it's never had a problem starting at that temperature with the ceramics. It may take 6 or 8 cranks as opposed to the more usual 3-4 but it's always started without issue. Now, anything 0 or below and it sounds ruff as f*** for the first minute.

well winter is coming so 7v e tecnos , in cold climate ,, you know the answer . so i did score one webasto tsp 17 , for 100 dollars , and i have my eye on one more , i like to have them , company i drive for ,, company drivers are not so careful and they flip over so many trucks with newer webasto , and they all end up in the scrap metal , what I'm trying to say to you gays , go to this truck scrap yards and you may find one in good conditions. but my problem i have frost heater from ID PARTS on my jetta . so i left that crd thing in the garage , oh yes i was so lazy i need to get that battery tray and some more parts just to get that that xmass shine lol, seriously my advice to anyone if you need to go to work in the morning if is your daily driver , get this package asap .