Hi all

car - 2006 ford focus sport 1.8 TDCI

I put another set of brand new glow plugs in last month but still having the problem of smoke and misfire for 30seconds - 1 minute from overnight park, pulled glow plugs out earlier and the tips of all 4 glow plugs were sooty, not awfully bad but still each had carbon at the tips.
I know I need to find out the cause for that but I am hoping whilst they are out of the engine if I was to clean them before putting them back in that my car will start okay tomorrow morning, if it does I know the problem is the car not starting up properly due to the plugs tips having carbon on them, then I shall investigate why.
the carbon/soot is dry not wet.


so my question, is it possible to clean the carbon/soot off the tips off the glow plugs and what should I use if so, would brake cleaner be ideal ?

thanks so much to all in advance