It was well and truly seized in the head, but after two hours of drilling and careful filing, I managed to get the last of it out without ruining the threads and without dropping crap in the cylinder.

I bought my minivan in 2008. It was cheap and basic and I took good care of it. But the north is harsh on vehicles, and that glow plug had been seized in the head for a good 4 years. The engine was still starting and running like a champ, so I left it there. But lately it's started acting up bad. And there's rust at the bottom of the bodywork too...

Now it's come to the point where, in the past, fixing a vehicle like this wouldn't have been worth the money, and it would have been time to consider buying a newer, more reliable ride.

But... that was in the past. There's a new variable in the equation: this old minivan isn't on the internet, it doesn't have a camera or a microphone, it doesn't have telemetry and it doesn't snitch on me. And the mere thought of having to buy a new car fills me with a sense of dread and nausea.

So I really, REALLY want to keep this old minivan on the road. But if I hadn't been able to get the glow plug out, I would have had to replace the head. That's not cheap. It would probably have cost more than the residual value of the minivan. But I got the glow plug out, so now the minivan is suddenly a whole lot more worth saving.

Now that the engine is sorted out, I replaced the ground strap. And what do you know: now it turns over really healthy. I measured a 2V drop across the old strap. Yikes! But there's still something wrong with the afterglow, because the engine dies seconds after starting when it's cold. I'll sort that out later.

When it's all nice and reliable again, my plan is to bring it to an auto body shop to have it rust-proofed / repainted and have the various dings fixed up here and there.

Pouring money into that thing would have been insane 20 years ago. But in 2026, I reckon extending the life of an old vehicle is an investment in privacy. That's how disturbing the world we live in is.