Bob East Yorks

As a tempoary measure until I can remove and service the heater after Xmas I've just pulled out fuse No 12 OK, slow warm up ( but that was the case with the heater not firing up properly anyway ) but at least No Smoking OK so I got round to stripping down the heater last weekend. The problem seemed to be that the fuel was vapourizing but not igniting so lots of white smoke etc (see previous post) Grobbled about under the car and wasn't too bad-a-job thanks to Ivor's pictorial guide on page 6 above. Got the glow plug out and checked it on the battery - worked fine and glowed orange - yellow hot Checked the combustion can for sooting up / decoking - was clean Checked air inlet pipe / exhaust pipe - both ok and not blocked. Assumed it must be the metering pump so reassebbled all in disgust at not finding the problem Then a miracle happened - the heater started working !!!! and seems to be working ok since with no smoke. All I can assume is that there was a bad / dirty electrical connection on either the multiplug under the car, the multiplug in the end of the heater unit or onto the end of the glow plug. In other words the glowplug wasn't getting full power and was therefore wasn't getting hot enough to ignite the fuel but was getting hot enough to vapourise it. Considering the multiplug under the car is the one exposed to all weathers it could well have been that one so if you have the problem that I had it may just be worth spraying the contacts in this plug with switch cleaner or something to clean them before starting to strip down the whole unit.

As a tempoary measure until I can remove and service the heater after Xmas I've just pulled out fuse No 12 OK, slow warm up ( but that was the case with the heater not firing up properly anyway ) but at least No Smoking

OK I've read all the posts on the Aux Heater - Informative to say the least all 20 pages !!!! My problem seems to be as follows : loads of grey smoke after a couple of minutes from starting engine, turbine noise too, exhaust on aux heater not getting hot..... From the above I assume it's the glow plug that is getting hot enough to VAPORISE the fuel but not hot enough to IGNITE it Am I more or less correct in my assumptions that a new glow plud should correct the problem ?? thanks all in anticipation of your reply !! Bob

Thanks Turk, yes with hindsight I might have been better off with the cheaper cable - I bought the interface I did as it will do cars with the more modern CAN system and if I change in the future it would still be ok. Anyhow it seems to work ok and I can get fully functioning software for it for round about the same price as the VAG-Com stuff so it's one of the same really. Bob

Got the ELM 327 and cable - works fine, the software found the USB ports on my laptop etc so no problems. Got it from autobitz on ebay for about

Well I've orderd an ELM327 with cable , software etc - I'll let you know how I get on with it !

Anybody ?? ( Bob checks underarms and also diary as to when he had a bath last :) )

Hello All - new to the forum as I've just got a 2002 TDi Ghia - so far so good ! What's the best cable / software combination to buy for reading the engine info via the obdii DLC ? I've read most of the previous posts on this subject and whilst I'm not new to the concept of computer diagnostics of engines there are one or two concepts here I'd like clarification on. My experience so far has been on industrial machinery but most of the protocols are industry specific. The Galaxy is of the same design Sharan / Alhambra so the VAG-Com software presumably works on the Galaxy even though is really advertised as suitable for the VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda marcs ? Also the Vag-com software seems to be around

Big Kev : <<It helps to warm the water up so that the engine can reach its ideal operating temperature more quickly. Obviously as this same water is used to heat the passenger compartment it has the nice effect of helping you car to be warm in winter.>> That's interesting - So the rear heater actualy warms the engine cooling water ? I thought the rear heater was just for warming the rear compartment as the heater at the front wasn't big enough or you would fry at the front when it was just right in the back. The only reason I query it is when I've heard the rear heater running and there's only me in the car I've turned it off at the climate control facia but presumably I'm only turning the fan off and the heater is still actually burning fuel to heat the water. Bob