Second Hand Hyundai i20 Glow Plugs

Glow plugs only exist on diesel-engined i20s — they are the pre-heating devices that warm the combustion chamber before a cold start, and petrol engines simply do not use them. If your i20 is petrol, it will never have had glow plugs fitted; what you may be looking for instead are spark plugs. Always confirm your fuel type from your V5 before ordering.

The i20 ran as a first generation from 2008 to 2014 and a second generation from 2014 onwards, and these are significantly different platforms with different diesel engine families, so glow plugs from one generation will very likely not interchange with the other. The engine code is the deciding factor — match the code from your V5 or a VIN check rather than relying on the year alone. Confirm compatibility with the breaker against your registration before purchasing.

Trim level has no bearing on glow plug fitment whatsoever — Classic, SE, and Premium trims all share the same diesel engine hardware underneath, so the plugs are determined entirely by the engine code, not the badge on the car. You may receive a set pulled from a different trim level and that is perfectly fine mechanically. Just ensure the engine code matches your own V5.

The single most useful piece of information is your engine code, which you can find on your V5 logbook or by running a VIN check — this tells the breaker exactly which plugs were fitted regardless of year, trim, or body style. Also have your registration number ready, as breakers can cross-reference this to confirm the correct part. Diesel i20s typically have either a 1.1 CRDi or 1.4 CRDi engine, but go by the code rather than the displacement alone.

Body style makes no difference to glow plug fitment — the plugs sit in the engine and are identical regardless of how many doors the car has. What matters is the engine code, fuel type, and engine displacement. Focus your search on those details and the body style can be disregarded entirely.

The first-generation i20 received a facelift around 2012, but whether glow plugs interchange across that boundary depends on whether the engine code changed at that point, which can vary by variant and market. Name the boundary to your breaker and ask them to check both engine codes against your registration before agreeing a sale. This is not a straightforward yes or no without confirming the specific codes involved.