A diesel engine needs heat to start and to continue to run. Without heat, the engine is unable to fire up. A diesel engine’s cylinder block and head are heat hogs, leaving the combustion chamber cold when the engine isn’t running.
Diesel engines rely on glow plugs to produce the heat in the combustion chamber that they need to fire up. A glow plug is not a spark plug, although their end-game is the same. A spark plug produces a spark to set the air and fuel in the combustion chamber on fire. This is what starts a gasoline engine. A glow plug produces the heat that is necessary for the diesel engine to fire up and run. It does not produce a spark, but it does produce much-needed heat.
Glow plugs last much longer than spark plugs do because they are only used when you turn on your diesel automobile. This does not mean that these parts don’t go bad. They do, eventually, and signs your diesel engines glow plugs are failing include
A dead engine in cold weather
Black exhaust when you try to start the car or truck
Acceleration and power loss
Bad diesel fuel mileage and efficiency
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