Booster Heater.. No Dont Shoot Me

[lydanial]

please dont flame me for posting here.. i did a search on this and read post after post after post.. and now my brain is completely scrammbled, more so than when i started!!

 

anyway, start the car.. smokes whitish smoke from the back and stinks.. jet engine sound.. heater gets warm, engine temp goes up to normal... everyones happy.

 

heres the problem.. today i drove 9 miles to the supermarket.. cars warm, engines up to temp.. good, pulled up into a space and theres a lot of white smoke coming from the back, quick look under and yep its coming from the little pipe on the booster... its done this on a few occasions now.

 

ok questions

 

should it still smoke after a run or should it just be steam, as seen in several posts. i have to ask as it seems a bit excessive!!

 

is it doing this as its not burning all the fuel leaving unburnt smokey fuel /bad smell meaning new glow plug needed.

 

where can i get the uprated plug i've read about (if its needed)

 

should i just leave the thing alone and stuff the guys following me because it is working and im at least warm!

 

 

ps car was off the road for a month having a new turbo and i have not had it back long, probably only done 100 miles since return (if that), could it be a problem of it being stood so long.

[Guest MATT jr]

mmmmm, they can "smoke" if there's a lot of moisture in them, the look of concern from passers by make me laugh.

 

over fueling could cause smoke - i think there's a fuel metering pump somewhere, that might be to blame

 

if its working (firing up) then the glow plug is working, i doubt it could be causing such smoke, although they did change the plug at some point.

 

my view, is, if its working, leave it be

 

MJR :(

[gazza007]

I started getting this, had never happened before. I had recently being using Sainsbury's diesel, went back to Tesco & been OK. Could be just coincidence though?

[Guest MATT jr]

i find tesco fuel crap -- morrisons seems good

 

MJR

[NikpV]

i find tesco fuel crap

MJR

 

 

yes leaves a horrid aftertaste :lol:

[Guest gooner52]

much better with 2 sugars and a ham roll :lol: :lol:

[lydanial]

PROBLEM GOT WORSE!

 

OK now things are really upsetting me..

 

If i start the car the heater seems to fire up.. smoke comes out and all seems ok (ish) when i turn on the heating full blast it goes out!! no more smoke and the pipes are cold.

 

also when this happens the car WILL NOT get up to temperature, it hovers around 70 on a run and drops to about 55 when the car is static. if i turn off all heaters in the car and drive it gets up to temperature no problem.. so the heater unit isnt working. but it does fire up!! so glow plug ok or tempermental?? (next bit might help with more information)

 

also i read posts about hearing a jet engine sound.. i cant hear this .. the only sound i get similar to this is when i put the rear heating on full.. but that just seems to be the rear blower and not the heater unit.

so it looks like the heater unti has packed in?? can it be stripped down and sorted out?

 

please please help i am still recovering from a

[Guest MATT jr]

..theres a guide on here, on how to strip it down, and repair, might be in the FAQs?

 

MJR

[lydanial]

dont worry i am reading many many posts on this.. my problem is not taking it out and cleaning it.. the problem is whats wrong??

 

could it be just the glow plug.. but then shouldnt the jet engine noise still be present?

is it starving of fuel causing cut out?

if it needs to get burning properly first before the jet engine noise then surely that points to a plug but why would it fire up a little bit then go out? also not sure if i can hear a ticking noise or not..

 

i am really confused now!!

[Guest MATT jr]

could it be just the glow plug.. but then shouldnt the jet engine noise still be present?

 

...if it doesn't fire up, it "shuts down" after 5 attempts, and needs resetting with VAG com

 

is it starving of fuel causing cut out?

 

well no fuel will result in cut-out, so possible fuel metering pump problem

 

if it needs to get burning properly first before the jet engine noise then surely that points to a plug but why would it fire up a little bit then go out?

 

...maybe, theres a loose connection somewhere

 

MJR

[lydanial]

i have ordered a new glow plug (well i figure if i am going to take it out and try and clean the system i may as well change the plug.

 

i will have a closer look underneath tomorrow and see what i can see.

 

can someone just clrify the order of ignition.

 

is it.

1 ticking noise as fuel is pumped in.

2 firing up and smoke

3 jet engine noise

 

i ask this as i cant seem to hear a ticking noise,

it doesnt seem to fire up all the time (only very rarely)

and i get NO jet noise at all.

 

so i want to go through a process of elimination, ie if it should start ticking and then fire up then i may be able to go to the pump as this obviously isnt injetting the fuel stopping stage 2 and 3 from starting..

 

finally, i know where the aux heater is but can anyone point me in the right direction of the pump and anything else i should look at.. i just briefly looked under the car using a torch but couldnt see any wires leading to the unit so dont know where to go back to to find bits.

 

thanks again and may you all stay warm in your tdi's.

 

ADDED, it doesnt seem to want to fire up at all now, and i made a mistake in my earlier post, i mentioned that when i put on the heating that the aux heater would go out, this wasnt the case it seemed to just go out by itself after about 10-30 seconds.

 

ok answers on a post card to... no forget that it will get lost in the mail.. quick reply here!

[shepheap]

Even thought the heater is not working correctly the engine temp should still eventually reach normal operating temp (90deg) - but if the thermostat is not working correctly/needs replacing - this would add to the low temp ptoblem....wouldn't it?????????

[lydanial]

the engine temp will get to normal if i turn off the heaters and drive or leave it standing for quite a while.

 

when i turn on the heaters the engine temp drops, i believe this is due to the heaters taking what heat the engine is making thus dropping the temp, if the heater booster was working properly then it would boost the engine temp meaning that when the heaters are switched on that any heat took from the engine to power the heaters is replaced by the water circulating through the booster heater.. (correct me please if i have this messed up)

[NikpV]

elsawin has the startup sequence - as luck would have it my copy has decided to throw an error message - if I can repair it I'll let you know. I think if you are going to try an sort it it would be useful to bypass the external temp sensor so providing the coolant temp is below 75c it should fire - at least this will remove some of the doubt about whether it should start.

 

If you then take it apart after a failed startup attempt anydiesel on the plug would indicate that fuel is getting through. If the connection to the glowplug has worked loose then it could cause the intermittent startup problems(both earth and supply are on the same connector and a slightly loose connectionwill cause a problem.

[lydanial]

oh right so the jet engine noise shouldnt be present anyway until its nicely fired up?

[Rallim]

I had exactly the same with my booster heater. When I first got the car it wasn't even working, it was reading posts on this site that made me relaise I did have one fitted. I used VAG-COM to talk to it (it won't talk to the Aux Heater' unless the engine is running - well that's what I found with mine), it had had 5 flame-outs and locked out. I cleared the faults and lo and behold the next colder day the jet engine noise was heard and the car warmed up far quicker than ever before. :)

 

It worked OK for a few weeks and then the wife started reporting problems of it smoking (she drives it more than me), with embarrassing incidents where people had asked if the car was on fire. I interrogated it again with VAG-COM and a few more errors had appeared. I foolishly cleared them and so it continued to smoke.

 

That was last year, beginning of this year. Then in October it started to come on again, and consequently smoke again - so I took the plunge and bought a new glow plug from the VW dealer. Since doing so it has not smoked since, I'm not saying for definite it will cure your problem, it may well be the metering pump, but it certainly cured mine.

 

Hope this encourages you!

 

Gordon

 

PS Make sure you give the bolt that attaches the booster exhaust pipe to the car lots of wd40, I missed it out and rounded the bolt of and so had to remove the hole hanger assembly - a right pain in the bum! :lol:

[Guest Bobsys]

Hi,

My Gal -115ps 52 reg 6sp. Smoke billowing from booster heater exhaust, this recurred several times during short trips. Its been smoking for weeks.

Fraud dealer (gates) had never heard of the problem (yeah right), new heater

[Guest MATT jr]

Bobsys - cheers for the input.

 

i got a glow plug the same time as you - and just got my VAG COM -- fault code was "glow plug - open circuit" so burnt out glow plug is my problem.

 

when iv got time i will sort it out - iv already started spraying WD40 on it :)

 

MJR

[Alhambra]

My wifes Alhambra engine temp is running cold the past few weeks, rarely reaching 70 deg C. If i turn the cc to 18 deg C, the temp will go above 70 until i set the temp to 22 again, then back to 60 deg C....oil maxs at 70 deg C.

 

i have ordered a new stat, picking it up during the week & will fit it next weekend.

[Alhambra]

2. Also, the AUX heater seems not to be working, but at 10 deg C its too warm to activate... right?

 

 

Worked today for a few min's, lots of blue/white smoke out of it..... then it stopped smoking, could feel cold air blowing out its exhaust

 

Also, alot of un-burnt diesel on the exhaust pipe.... guess its time to strip it?

[Guest MATT jr]

sounds like the glow plug has gone to the heavens

 

MJR

[Alhambra]

summary: this evening i stripped the aux heater, found there was quite a bit of un-burnt diesel in the chamber, the glow plug tip was all corroded/burnt..... so i cleaned it up... i sprayed carb cleaner into the unit from various angles.... running fine now.

[Guest MATT jr]

..you must be running on the same band as i am, as i have also done our booster heater tonight.

 

had a pig of a job, because everything had rusted up good and proper.

 

new plug is in, faults re-set, although not cold enough to try yet.

 

MJR

[mike99]

I tested the old glow plug with 12v and it did get hot, but clearly not hot enough.

 

The Beru glowplug in mine is marked as 8v so I didn't want to try it at 12v. It did start to heat up with a 6v batt.

I have took my heater off for now so I can try to fix it, I have use a 1" pipe connector to attatch the coolant pipes together and blanked off the fuel.

Does anyone have the pin no.s and colours of wires for the connector so I can find out what each one does.

[Alhambra]

Any idea why the aux heater is "billowing out hugh amounts of white smoke"... accoding to my wife that is...

 

suggestions?