T4 California night Heater help please

[Junglemod]

Hi
I'm having trouble getting my heater to operate . It's a 91 model if that makes a difference ?
The didital readout flashes 00j ?
No buttons underneath alter that in any way
The two way rocker switch brings on the fan and green light illuminates but not heat ?
Have also altered the dial to the large segments once fan has been running for a time ?
Is there anyone who might be able to shed some light on this please to get it working now the weather has started to tuns a little colder ?
Cheers in advance

 

[pabloalfa76]

Hi junglemod,

I'm not an expert on the diesel heater, but on mine, the right-hand display is only if you want to program the heater to come on when you are away from the van.( any other time, I have a blank display )

To turn on the heater, switch rocker switch to the right ( wavy lines, green LED comes on ). The dial seems to make little difference, so I tend to leave it half-way?

Some times I find the buttons have accidentally been pressed on the programmer, ( normally wake up in the middle of the night, with heater running flat-out ) By pressing the centre button ( red wavy lines ) it will stop and the display goes blank again.

I have a badly translated sheet on how to program the heater. If you think it will help you, I'm willing to scan it and email it to you.

Cheers, Paul.

Ps, I believe the heater controls were lifted straight out of the T3 california, so you might get more info from the brickyard forum.

 

[Junglemod]

Hi
Cheers for that ill give it a whirl , might of been a little impatient as in a rush to get packed up for this weekend .
Ill try see if I get any heat from it if I leave it running for a time .
Cheers again
Steve

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

mine can take quite a while to produce heat.

Can you hear clicking from underneath the van? The fuel pump is quite noisy.

Also, have you got fuel? Never looked at where the heater takes it's supply from the tank, but pretty sure it's not the bottom.

 

[sidepod]

Jungle,

Ok i don't have the optional timer programmer thing so I'm struggling with that side of things.

This could be one of many things and, as with all electrical gremlins, time consuming to fix.

If your fan runs but no heat I'm going to suggest it's either fuel (as Dan pointed out) or glow plug (assuming diesel). I don't think the fuel pump runs untill about 30 seconds into the cycle?

So, switch the heater unit on and crawl under the van. On the side of the heater (sliding door side) you'll see the pump and the glow plug at a jaunty angle sticking out of the heater body. There should be a rubber condom over the top of it. Pull this back and stick your pinky on the tip of it. If it's functioning you'll feel the heat ! If not, there is your problem. From there you'll need to get the volt meter out to determine if the plug is dead or simply not getting a supply.
Disconect the cable and check the voltage to earth.

Assuming the plug is hot the next thing to try is to give the fuel pump a sharp tap. They're facet type pumps and can get a bit sticky. A sharp tap usually clears them. Operation is a pulse, approx one/second. You'll hear it clicking away. If it is working, try pulling of the pipe to the heater unit to ensure there is fuel flow. You'll need to maintain the slightly upward angle, supply being lower than output. If there is no fuel flow take the pump off and blow through the pipes. Check you have fuel in the main tank to a decent level as the system is designed to not empty the main tank.

If non of these things work then we need to get the wiring diagram out and start checking some stuff from the harness connection behind the main cupboard. It's easy to get to and straight forward.
I won't go into it here but will be happy to once you've checked out the above.

One other possibility, the little control panel where you switch the unit on/off from can suffer from dry solder joints.
Inside are two pcb's set at right angles to each other and linked by a series of bent solid wires soldered at each end. These joints can become dry and problematic. I resoldered all of mine and it cured several problems.

Let us know.

I've tried to move this post to the T4 section so if it vanishes we're over on the "light side"



S.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

So, switch the heater unit on and crawl under the van. On the side of the heater (sliding door side) you'll see the pump and the glow plug at a jaunty angle sticking out of the heater body. There should be a rubber condom over the top of it. Pull this back and stick your pinky on the tip of it. If it's functioning you'll feel the heat ! If not, there is your problem. From there you'll need to get the volt meter out to determine if the plug is dead or simply not getting a supply.
Disconect the cable and check the voltage to earth.

Heater is on the other side on mine, so check both sides I have the fan blower for the rear under the sliding door.

 

[Junglemod]

Cheers all !!!!!
This is a great help ,should be able to sort it with all this info .
Thanks Steve

 

[sidepod]

The dial seems to make little difference, so I tend to leave it half-way?

.

I thought the same for quite a while. It is actually a temperature control. I was under the impression it's a thermostat.

Try it. Turn it down to low and switch the heating on. Once it's been on for ten munutes hold your hand by the vent then turn up the dial and you'll feel the heat increase.

If you ever strip the heater down you'll find a thermister in the air intake. Connect a multi meter to it and grip it between your fingers, you'll see the resitance change. This is what monitors and controls the temp by changing the fuel input rate.

S.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Our heater tried to kill us yesterday. Filled the van with smoke.

Guessing the heat exchanger has failed?

Electric hookup became top of the list for tonight's campsite!


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[sidepod]

Blimey! High drama. Fuel smoke or electrical smoke, if that makes sense?

I can't quite see how exhaust smoke from the heater could find it's way into the air circuit? The heat exchanger/burner unit is a sealed unit and seperate form the air circuit.

The main electrical harness runs inside the air intake to a small PCB sitting inside the heater unit. Perhaps this went up in smoke causing the problem?

Did the main fuse blow?

Thank goodness you guys and Betty survived.

S.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Not electrical. Sure it's fuel. No worries though, electric heater on now. Have a view of Whitby abbey and some alpacas


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[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Been looking at this today.

Heater is running fine, no smoke and CO monitor says 0ppm.

Not really sure what happened, the only theory I have is complicated and I like simple things…

Our heater doesn't always fire up. I have to take the fuse out and put it back in. I think there's a bad contact there, replacing the fuse box is on the to-do list.

While poking about today I've noticed that when this happens, we do get a bit of smoke under the van when the heater does fire. Guess there is a lot of unburnt fuel hanging around? On the night in question it took a few goes to get the heater going. So there would have been a fair bit of smoke. Our sliding door doesn't seal at the back, looks like someone missed the jacking point some time in the past.

My theory is that as the van heated up, cold air was pulled in through this gap as heat escaped through the top vents. It was a very still evening, so the smoke won't have dispersed quickly. So that got pulled into the van.

It's the only explanation I have at the mo.

On the plus side, I think I've fixed the vanes on the radiator, an oil leak and worked out why we occasionally lose 1st and 2nd gears

 

[sidepod]

Dan,

Do you have the small bore exhaust properly connected to the heater unit? It should be in place and routed away under the van exiting in front of the near side rear wheel, a long way from your sliding door. I ask this as colleague has a similar van without any visible heater exhaust pipe.

It does sound as if you're getting an excess of fuel prior to ignition. The first thing I'd do is replace the glow plug.

Loss of the first two cogs sounds like a challenging drive? Any ideas why?

S.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

The exhaust is on the driverside, pointing backwards, but is not quite in the wheel arch, it is a little further forward than that. Maybe under the fridge? It doesn't normally smoke. It's only after a poor start that it smokes quite noticeably. The CO monitor has never picked up anything when it is running. Only when cooking...

Do you know part a number/supplier for the glow plugs for these? I'm quite sure the starting issue is electrical but it's probably worth changing the plug, my guess is it'll be the original.

The van pulls away on the flat okay in 3rd. Turbo power! It's done it a couple of times now, the first time I thought it was me, but no. Reverse to 1st has always been a bit difficult as well. I think it's a little plastic ball in the bit that takes the linkage through 180 degrees. Seems to falling apart, the top is already missing.

The evening before we lost the gears again we'd driven up a 1 in 3 hill, only got a little way in 2nd before having to put it in 1st Glad it didn't fail then! Was very imperssed with the old girl, she got a good pat on the dashboard for that :clap

 

[sidepod]

http://sales.butlertechnik.com/eberspac ... 1384010002

D2L is listed in the applications list.

Your gearbox linkage problem could be caused by worn engine mounts allowing the motor to drop.
When I replaced all of mine the gear change was noticably lighter.

S.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Ta, ordered one.

Will see what happens after I change this linkage part. I'm sure the engine mounts are worn, but I've been putting off getting it done...

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Changed the glowplug, but the startup still requires a wiggle of the fuse, so changing the fuse box is still on the to-do list.

Changed the gear linkage. Easy job, made three times harder by dropping a bolt and having to take the engine undertray off to retrieve it Gear change is much improved.

Dropping the bolt was probably for the best though, while I was under there I found the new CV boot that was fitted in the summer has worked loose.

 

[sidepod]

Nice one Dan. I'm glad it was nothing too serious. Always good to take a peek inside the guts and check everything is peachy.

I was rumaging about under the bonnet a few months ago when I spotted a clean shiny bolt sitting on top of one of the front chassis legs. I fished it out with a mag probe and examined it.

It was deffo something special, not just a standard bolt. Clealy important. Immediately I bagan to envisage being stranded somewhere with a destoyed engine/gearobx!!

I removed the undertray and went to work finding it's home. Nothing!! Couldn't find any holes missing a bolt.

I spent the next few months worrying, the rouge bolt sitting in a cubby hole in the dash.

Exentually I discovered where it came from. It was from the UJ drive of the socket set I used to remove the oil filter. It had just popped out and landed on the chassis leg. :lol: :lol:

S.