Duramax Glow Plug Swap Cost

[Hunter65]

So in late August I had the number two glow plug fail, took it to a shop and they charged me $190 to change it out. Last week I had the number three glow plug fail, took it to the same shop, this time it was $500. They tell me it's because the number three glow plug is much more difficult to access than the number two. Does this sound correct and reasonable?
Thank you.

[yoteblaster]

I have over 600,000 on my 07 and 18 combined. I have never had a glow plug fail. Is it common?

[Hunter65]

It seems common on mine. It's a 2012 and just turned 160,000 k. Chevy has acknowledged the problem and extended the warranty for glow plugs to 10 years, which expired 2 years ago. These are the first two to go off warranty so I had to pay out of pocket. I have probably replaced six now . Have been doing some Googling, seems that it's not all that difficult. Wondering if I got ripped off.

[Drewski Canuck]

Cummins has gone away from glow plugs to a grid heater which actually lasts a long time and is pretty easy to replace.

Don't know if you could get an after market conversion to a grid heater, but it may be an alternative.

Drewski

[urban rednek]

I just watched a guy change the #1 glow plug in a 2012 3500HD Duramax that makes it look like a 30 minute job for a DIYer. It requires pulling the passenger tire and the fender liner. The #3 glow plug was just as accesible. Unless yours is set up differently, or the glow plug broke and had to be drilled out, I'd be questioning their integrity.
Skip to the 10 minute mark and you can judge for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=EgCLePtA6VA

[treeroot]

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

Cummins has gone away from glow plugs to a grid heater which actually lasts a long time and is pretty easy to replace.

Don't know if you could get an after market conversion to a grid heater, but it may be an alternative.

Drewski

Pretty sure duramaxes have both glow plugs and grid heaters.. Both of mine had them anyway 06 and a 08.

Glow plugs are not hard to replace on my 06/08's. Maybe 2 hour job to do all 8. I did spray some penetrating fluid on each once a day for a few days before I did the job. Not sure if that helped.

When one went on them, I replaced all 8. I think on both those trucks I only replaced them once.

I used bosch glow plugs. I did lots of reading and the bosch ones had much better reveiws.

[amosfella]

#3 can be a bit of a bear with some of the stuff in the way. On the ones I've done, #8 is by far the worst.

IIRC, you can get to #2 without pulling the wheel well liner.

[coolpete1]

seems like every second truck that comes in for them on a duramax breaks one or 2 , i'm scared to touch them anymore.

[amosfella]

You crack them loose while the engine is hot.

[mryimmers]

Changed all of them in my 2002 Duramax a few years back, had to gently work some of them out. Put anti-seize on new ones. To me worst part of the job is those inner fenders, I hate fooling around with that stuff. Don't recall any being too terribly hard to get at though.

[Indy]

For a $30-40 part, that seems excessive.

[amosfella]

Originally Posted by mryimmers

Changed all of them in my 2002 Duramax a few years back, had to gently work some of them out. Put anti-seize on new ones. To me worst part of the job is those inner fenders, I hate fooling around with that stuff. Don't recall any being too terribly hard to get at though.

Been told by guys that do hundreds of these things that using antiseize on the glow plugs actually makes the seizing problem worse.

[mryimmers]

Oh?? Haha, hope not, seems like I have a few not working now, truck will be parked soon though, it’s pretty rough. So I may never find out.

[Duramaximos]

Originally Posted by Hunter65

So in late August I had the number two glow plug fail, took it to a shop and they charged me $190 to change it out. Last week I had the number three glow plug fail, took it to the same shop, this time it was $500. They tell me it's because the number three glow plug is much more difficult to access than the number two. Does this sound correct and reasonable?

Thank you.

$190 is reasonable. $500 is way too high.
I've done both sides of mine. Entire passenger side took 1 hour and the drivers side took 1.5 hours. The rear drivers position was a bit tricky but got them all out without issue.
I had one on each side fail about 1 year appart. Decided to change the whole side after taking the time to remove the liners.

[MegaHorn]

Originally Posted by amosfella

You crack them loose while the engine is hot.

this ^^

I just paid 2,000 to get all 8 replaced on my lly in stony
cheapest place to order oem is from dirty diesel customs out of kelowna

[Hunter65]

Originally Posted by Duramaximos

$190 is reasonable. $500 is way too high.
I've done both sides of mine. Entire passenger side took 1 hour and the drivers side took 1.5 hours. The rear drivers position was a bit tricky but got them all out without issue.
I had one on each side fail about 1 year appart. Decided to change the whole side after taking the time to remove the liners.

Thanks. This is the answer I was looking for. They charged $149 for a diagnosis, $253 for labor, $50 for the plug, $25 for the always mysterious shop supplies, and gst. $498. The diagnosis sounds unreasonable. I'm going to call them Monday. Thanks for the answer.
They also asked if I wanted all 8 changed out for just under $1000, which I declined as almost all of them have been swapped already.