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P263C

Glow Plug Control Driver Performance

The glow plug control driver does not respond to commands within tolerance. Cold-start glow function is degraded so cold starting can be delayed and white smoke increases.

  • Check engine light: Yes
  • Emissions related: No
  • Repair difficulty: hard

Symptoms

  • Glow plug warning light on (often orange coil symbol)
  • Hard cold start or no start in cold weather
  • White smoke from exhaust during warm-up

Common causes

Ordered by how often each turns out to be the cause.

  • Aged driver shows degraded switching behaviourCommon
  • Current feedback loop noisyPossible

Parts involved

  • Glow Plug Controller
  • Control Module

P263C is a generic OBD-II code defined by SAE J2012. Exact wording and diagnostic procedure vary by manufacturer and model. Code definitions are drawn from the public-domain OBDex dataset; the workshop notes are our own.