Too Cold For The Old Gals Aux Heater

[marinabrid]

well its as cold as its ever been before -8 last night here in Bridlington, aux heater fired up on every trip out till today,!!!! it runs for a few mins but never seems to spool up to full blast, it then shuts down, on re start it does the same,

wonder if the fuel or metering pump could freeze up , anyone else had this ?

[tona955]

Yeap, in the same boat...even the Sharan struggled to fire up easy at -11 up here, I think you may be correct about the freezing fuel.

[seatkid]

Possibly it never fired up due to glow plug failure or a metering pump fault(the wires/connections to this are extremely flimsy). Did the exhaust get hot? (Watch those pinkys!) - If it did the could be failed a aux water pump not pumping water to aux heater (brushes gone).

 

Or if you don't have enough antifreeze then maybe the aux heater pipes are frozen and blocked. IIRC the heater will try(cycle) 3 times before shutting down permanently. On the MK1 i.e. yours, switching off the ignition resets it. On the Mk2 the lockout needs to be reset by diagnostics/VAGCOM.

 

Doubt its freezing fuel - Winter diesel is good to below -18 deg C.

Edited December 21, 2010 by seatkid

[tona955]

I have a little Diesel leak on the fuel filter valve and sometimes I find Diesel on the top rim of the filter, on these cold mornings I have seen it almost jelly like liquid, but perhaps because it is exposed and not inside a fuel line.

[daddyfixit]

mines off as well..........but we had -16 c twice this week

 

run on pump been quiet for ages (now she tells me) i belted it and it did start working---once .aux heater not been on for ages; so after xmas i will be busy under there

1. off to mates garage as he has vag-com to have a little nose at whats going on,

checking the loom at the pump and heater

2. re-brushing the run on pump

3.fitting a glow plug

4. then keeping fingers crossed !!!

Edited December 21, 2010 by daddyfixit

[marinabrid]

yup its most annoying when you need the heater the most the little sod packs up

 

the snow is a foot deep on the pavement and drive so cant even get under the car to swop it.

[marinabrid]

well the temp is now back to the normal 4c outside and the heater has burst back into life

so either the diesel got thick in the -8 we had in which case when you need it most its

too cold for it good job we dont get these temps very often or maybe add some of the anti gel stuff to the fuel