Aux / Booster Heater

[Smilge]

Well, she fired up again for the first time this year ......... lovely and warm on the way into work .......shame about the office though and they're not switching the heating on until the 1st October! :angry2:

[mumof4]

Yep time of year when peeps will realise they either do or dont work..i know the one on the gal i had never worked.oops!..bugger eh..

[marinabrid]

if in doubt that its working hit it with a rubber hammer, on ours after a few months rest i think they need waking up, last 2 years, ive put the fuse in to bridge the sensor and nothing happens till i give it a whack. then its up and away.

glowplugs for this unit can be got fromMY SHOP

Edited September 17, 2007 by motorcareman

[big_kev]

Or http://www.vwspares.co.uk

[mike99]

yes mine also fired up today for the first time today. no smoke too :ph34r:

[lazyb5]

yep up and working and no smoke woohoo :ph34r:

[gregers]

at what temp did yours actually fire up(i know the temp its meant to)still the lowest temperature weve had down here has been 11.5c .coz im pretty sure mine wont work at 10c so it will look like i will be paying a surprise visit to the dealer to have a friendly CHAT YET AGAIN :ph34r:

[big_kev]

Lazyb5 is from Peterborough......a known cold spot....inland...low lying....would be below 5 degrees overnight.

 

I think mike99 is from North Wales.....wouldn't think this it that cold.......what with all the burning cottages :ph34r:

[mike99]

correct I'm in north wales.

It registered 10.5c on the dash display yesterday and it fired up, but I remember last year it reading 9 c and didn't.

[Smilge]

at what temp did yours actually fire up(i know the temp its meant to)still the lowest temperature weve had down here has been 11.5c .coz im pretty sure mine wont work at 10c so it will look like i will be paying a surprise visit to the dealer to have a friendly CHAT YET AGAIN :lol:

 

Was showing 11 gregers .... will be a good test to see if it fired up this morning ... only 6 degrees.

[JohnR]

After fitting a new glowplug, and making some new brushes for the after run pump last year, mine fired up no probs this morning.....gives you a nice warm feeling! :-)

 

Don't forget, if your gal is more than 4 years old and you have trouble getting the heater going then make sure your after-run pump is working. With the hood open, you should hear it running for a couple of minutes after you turn the engine off. Its

Edited September 18, 2007 by JohnR

[mattc]

Hi, This thread got me thinking as I only bought our Gal in the summer and didn't check the aux heater until this morning and is it normal for the exhaust to leak gases and drip diesel type fluid?

Cheers Matt.

[JohnR]

Did it actually fire up and work properly? It may well be a bit smokey at first. If so, once its had a good burn it might be ok. Otherwise follow thread in faq's to swap glowplug.

 

John

 

PS. Its a good idea to put your car details in your signature so people know the age and spec.

[Smilge]

Hi, This thread got me thinking as I only bought our Gal in the summer and didn't check the aux heater until this morning and is it normal for the exhaust to leak gases and drip diesel type fluid?

Cheers Matt.

 

Not normally no Matt ...... did you hear it running? Sounds like a mini jet engine by the way...... If you didn't, it sounds like yours has tried to ignite but has "flamed out". It will try 5 times and then lock itself out. VAG COM has to be used to reset the fault. The usual cause of this is the glow plug and will need to be changed before you have the fault reset. There is a good thread on how to do this if you do a search.

[raymac]

6.5c this morning and mine fired up :lol: one less repair to worry about!!

[Ex-Galaxy person]

Hi All,

 

Mine didn't fire up this morning...but this is the second winter we've had it and it had to be really cold for it to fire up last year.

 

Anyway, I've just bought a new pollen filter so I'll probably bridge the sensor whilst I'm in that neck of the woods.........

 

Phillip

[JohnR]

Next time you have a chance, just lift the hood and see if you can hear a whirring noise near the back for a couple of minutes after you turn the engine off. Brush wear in the after-run pump is an extremely predictable rate so if yours has not been replaced it may well need doing at the age of your gal (4/5 yrs 100k miles is typical). The only indication that mine was not working (other than the lack of the aforementioned noise) was that the aux heater would not fire up properly. It would have a go for a minute or so and then bomb out. The after run pump circulates the water through the aux heater.

[marinabrid]

well clouting with mallet didnt work. heres the story, i left the car for a weeks hol, on return the heater fired then stopped. after stopping car and re starting the engine 4 times it fired into life. i let it run a full cycle and swtich off. next morning just the same. swopped glowplug hoping this would cure the thing but no. nothng. now, are you supposed to service these heaters in anyway ? if so has anyone done one. anyone any ideas why the thing chooses to work now and agin but then not work. mk 1 model tdi. thanks

[marinabrid]

ive been in touch with a couple of eberspacher people i found, they all seem to want around 75 -100 pounds to service the item , does anyone know whts involved in de coking the unit to hopefully make it work

[mattc]

Hi, thanks for the comments and when you said it might smoke you wasn't joking "BLOODY HELL", I waited for a few seconds and David Copperfield didn't appear :angry2:. It seams to be working IE; Jet engine noise(cool) and pumping out warm air, so I will just give it a good burn off when it gets a bit colder.

Cheers Matt.

PS Signature added.

[Steveenduro]

Mine stopped running a couple of years ago after I changed the coolant.

I'm sure it must be linked.

Also, the car is nearly 7 years old and over 100k, (although heater stopped at about 75k).

I'm not sure in what order to diagnose. I've got the basic vag com lead, but haven't looked into software yet - will this point me in the right direction, or should I bite the bullet and start looking at changing glowplugs and looking at after-run pumps.

I haven't heard that comforting jet engine whine for so long............

Thanks

[marinabrid]

ive been in touch with a very helpful chap at ribbledale motors in lancs, they say that units are recommemnded to be de coked every year ! how many folk have ever done this, has anyone a break down of how to do the job at all. maybe some kind soul could disect and photo the job for us plonkers.

[seatkid]

IIRC, the photos are already on the forum somewhere.......

[Dave-G]

The photo's start on page 6 of the link below - thanks to one of our kind members... IVOR

 

but if you take the trouble to read the whole thread with a coffee you'll all learn a hellofalot about the heaters.

 

Ivors pictorial help

 

Before I did mine - using Ivors pictures - my heater smoked like hell and fuel leaked out of it. it was getting warmish but the glowplug was not getting hot enough to burn the fuel properly. After the job it was brrrriliant :43:

Edited September 19, 2007 by Dave-G

[gregers]

right yesterday the temp was 9.5,this morning it was 8.5 and guess what?IT DIDNT BLOODY WORK so have gone and had a chat with the dealer and he assures me he will get back to me in the next few days,once he has made contact with the people who done the so called repairs,so i will let you know the outcome :rolleyes: