Patent ID: 7881851

Claim:
A method for operation of glow plugs that project with a heater element into a diesel engine which interacts with an engine control unit and with a glow plug control unit which, following a preheating phase, controls the electric power supplied to the glow plugs in dependence on an input received from the engine control unit, the method comprising: determining a value defining a first steady-state temperature that is to be reached at the heater element; transmitting the determined value as a target value to the glow plug control unit; converting the target value with an algorithm stored in the glow plug control unit taking into account characteristic values stored in the glow plug control unit; and using the target value to effectuate a change of the steady-state temperature of the heater element from a first reference steady-state temperature to a second reference steady-state temperature, the first and second reference steady state temperature being variable.