Auto lite glow plugs Are REALLY BAD!

4 Months ago I inherited a 86 F250 6.9 4×4 with a startING problem. On my way home with my new truck fuel was blowing all over the engine. One of the return line hoses rotted off. So I odered a injector hose and cap kit and during the install I checked the glow plugs. All dead. Went to Rock Auto aND found a real deal on glow plugs $6 each (Autolite). After all was installed the truck started great for about a week. Then the starting was worse than before. I thought it was air getting in the fuel lines. Not being able to find the leak I installed a Facet fuel pump. Did not help. So I rechecked two glow plugs and both were bad after 4 months aND only 300 miles. I ordered 8 Motorcraft gp and the third one out a 1/4 inch of the tip was missing and it was expanded. I checked to see if the tip was still in the hole. It was so I put a little WD in the hole and cranked the engine. It blew the tip out.
I had 2 more that were expanded and very hard to pull out. But I did it very slowly and carefully. Yes Autolite are Bad. 4 month's the and 300 mile and most of the gp's were blowing out and expanding. Wish I had read this forum before finding the great $6 glow plugs!
Never again!

Truck fired right up!

Yours is a story told many times here...

Heed the warnings given here

Be a good time to upgrade to the solid state system.
Weren't 6.9 known to stick on, frying glowplugs?

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http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?77943-Autolite-glow-plugs-do-have-a-use!!!

I bought 8 Autolite glow plugs and only got one start out of them all 8 plugs failed the same way so I went to the local ford dealership and bought the ford ones never had a problem since! my dad ended up using one of the Autolite plugs to make a compression tester adapter for me they work really good for that lol.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry you found out the hard way but at least you did not have to remove heads to get stuck plugs out. some members have had to do just that. One member some years back had a shop remove and install new glow plugs. The engine had a knock when he tried to drive off. Shop said they broke off "a few" plug tips and revved it up till they blew out the exhaust... That rarely works well. Ends up the shop had to remove the engine and replace pistons because the tips were berried in the piston tops. Not all auto repair shops are equal to others. Sad lesson learned there too.

79jasper said:

Be a good time to upgrade to the solid state system.
Weren't 6.9 known to stick on, frying glowplugs?

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Yep! The bimetallic spring in the 6.9L controller is notorious for sticking to the electric contact point, resulting in the plugs staying on long past their failure point.

I was lucky enough to have my controller fail off, somehow (or perhaps the wiring to/from the controller went bad). But yes, the 7.3 setup is much better.

I usually buy glowplugs from rockauto.

So I read about the Autolite Glow Plugs being AFU, I got these champion ones, I hope these are note like the problems with the Autolite brand, what say you all?

Throw those in the trash, return them, or do something other than put them in your truck. I had those in my truck initially and they were challenging to remove but were removed and beru’s went in their place. Save yourself headache.

If you "read about autolites," you should've already known.

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Berus or Motorcraft glow plugs ONLY! ALL the rest are not up to the standards of the Beru manufactured glow plugs and they can swell and/or break when removing them.

I was lucky with the autolites that were in my 6.9 when I got it. A couple were a little hard to get out but it was due to carbon. I had to clean the holes before the new Motorcraft ones would even go in.

What's funny is, anytime you go to an autopart store to buy glow plugs, all they list or stock is autolites.
I used ac delco in the past and was happy with those but I still put motorcraft as first choice

vegas39 said:

What's funny is, anytime you go to an autopart store to buy glow plugs, all they list or stock is autolites.
I used ac delco in the past and was happy with those but I still put motorcraft as first choice

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Yep. When I went to an indie parts shop, Autolite is what their system had. I paid cheaper on Amazon (third party seller) for Motorcraft ones, anyway.