In my ignorance, I thought that if ceramic grease was applied to a glow plug's thread on installation, it would enable easy removal of the glow plug any time in the future.
I have been doing a bit of Googling and found that when a glow plug has been removed, it is best practice to ream and remove the built up carbon from the glow plug orifice before replacing or renewing the glow plug. NGK recommends it and have an E-Learning segment on it on their European website.
NGK E-Learning – Technische Tipps für Zündung und SensorikI didn't know this but carbon can build up around and underneath the tip of the glow plug and hold it in place so that it cannot be removed.....which is ok until the glow plug fails. A quick search on this website will show that i30 glow plugs can have a fairly short lifespan.
I now consider that removing the glow plugs and reaming the glow plug hole will be something that I need to do periodically....say every 80,000km....just to ensure that they never get stuck...perhaps necessitating head removal and even swapping.
The glow plug to suit an i30 diesel has a thread M10 with a 1.25 pitch, which is not a common size when looking at glow plug reamers that Ebay has on offer.
I am trying to locate a glow plug reamer of this size at a reasonable price that I can pop away in a drawer and use when needed.
Does anyone know of a reasonably-priced source that I can buy from?
Many thanks,
Paolo