Aux Heater

[GalMan]

The past few mornings the aux heater on my gal has been coming on, the outside temp reading has been 12 degrees, and 14 degrees, but this morning with a temp of 9.5 it didn't come on.

 

Could anyone tell me when under what conditions it is supposed to come on, does the interior climate control setting have anything to do with it, i.e. high setting causes the aux heater to activate, as I've had this at different settings each morning.

 

Cheers,

 

Galman

[johnb80]

I believe the rules are less than 11.5 deg outside air temp and less than 90 deg coolant temp. Occasionally mine hasn't come on usually caused by doing a short run i.e. quater of a mile, stopping and then restarting after a couple of minutes. At all other times it follows the above rules.

It does make a tremendous difference, last winter I did a journey where it hadn't come on and after 20 miles it was still bloody cold inside and the engine never got to normal running temp (thats before I knbew about the aux heater).

 

Regards - JB

[rwtomkins]

In my experience the aux heater, bless its little fuel pump, is very moody and capricious and comes on when it feels like it regardless of the rules. That's an interesting theory about the interior climate control, though. What we need now is for someone to be waiting in vain for the aux heater to kick in, then for them to wham up the interior heat setting and see if it prods the aux heater into life.

[GalMan]

Just driven 90 miles to work this morning, stopped to get a paper for about a minute, got back into the Gal started the engine and the aux heater came on and stayed on for the last mile of my journey.

I would have thought that as the engine temp didn't have time to drop at all that the aux heater should not have come on, or should it?

Any advice would be welcome, except the type that says yes it's a fault and another trip to the dealers is looming.

 

Cheers,

 

Galman.

[johnb80]

No it shouldn't have come on.

 

Regards - JB

[Guest grello42]

D'you know what? I've been waiting and waiting with pent up excitement for the little devil to kick in, just so that I can start a new thread about a strange whirring and ticking noise. But so far, it has refused steadfastly to join the party. Either that, or a) they forgot to fit it, B) they fitted it and it doesn't work or c) it can see me as I enter/exit the car and comes on when I'm not there, just for the hell of it! :lol:

[Ivor_E_Tower]

The aux heater has a mind of its own - drove up to Prodrive for my "fun day" driving Mondeos today, stopped at Warwick Services after over 90 miles of driving. When I came to leave after max of 15 minutes at rest, the aux heater kicked in for just a few minutes until I left the service area.

I can tell you that if the ST220's TDCI engine is fitted to the next Galaxy, we are in for a real treat. :) B) :lol: Mr Ford, are you listening?.....

 

Edited 13-10-2004:

The cars may have been badged ST220 like the petrol engined ones, but IIRC the TDCI gives around 155 PS from 2.2 litres but 400Nm of torque on over-boost (haven't converted that to pound-feet yet); it has been significantly re-worked from the 2.0 litre TDCI and, yes, I am aware that there have been some reliability woes with that engine. Hopefully the 2.2 litre version will have been "de-bugged". The Ford rep said that they are now working on third-generation common-rail units.

[johnb80]

I too like the TDCi Mondeo BUT I'm told there's been loads of grief with this engine :lol:

 

Regards - JB

[rwtomkins]

Mr Tower's right, these heaters sometimes behave very unpredictably and I doubt very much indeed whether it's anything to worry about. In any case, isn't it true to say that if the outside temperature is low enough, the heater will come on regardless of the coolant temperature? Perhaps it suddenly turned chilly while you were in the paper shop...

[MatTdi]

It was 8 degrees at home yesterday and the booster heater came on while the missus was dropping the kids off at play school, she said she looked round to see where the low flying jet was :) :lol: B)

 

Made my day when she told me........

 

 

M@

[Danny Boy]

It was 8 degrees this morning, the heater never kicked in untill 2 miles down the road I increased the tempertaure on the CC to 22 degrees from 21....then the old devil kicked in, in all her glory!!

 

Bless :blink: :)

[Another?Maybe!]

Theoretical cut-in temps are in the hand-book(!), outside temp +/- coolant temperature.

 

Having said that, mine runs at a higher outside temp than handbook states.... or maybe temp on computer read-out is incorrect...and on a short journey home the other night it wouldn't stop after we arrived! Had to get back into car and switch the 'ignition' on and off again to stop it running.... obviously has a mind of it's own as previously suggested!!

 

... and the smell of the fumes are horrible, not diesel smell at all... or maybe it's the cheap Froggie diesel I'm using at the moment?!

 

PeteR.

[johnb80]

If the heater has been running on it's maximum output when you switch off it will continue to run in order to cool itself down. It's probably a coincidence that after cycling the ignition it did shut down, more likely at that point it was cool enough.

 

The smell should be similar to that of a Jet aircraft because in effect the burning process is very similar.

 

Regards - JB

[Guest T120]

hi you guys

 

Below copy from TIS re Booster Heater operating peramitors:-

 

Description and Operation

 

Because of the high efficiency of the 1,9 TDI diesel engine with direct fuel injection, not enough heat output is available for the vehicle heating system.

 

A booster heater located between the engine and the rear heat exchanger increases the coolant temperature to provide adequate air heating.

 

A separate metering pump supplies the booster heater with diesel fuel from the fuel return pipe.

 

When the engine is running the booster heater operates automatically if the outside temperature drops below 5

[Masked Marauder]

OK, so have I got this correct?

 

The booster ALWAYS works if the coolant is below 75 degrees Celcius. This is at low output.

 

If the condition above is true and the outside temperature is below 5 degrees Celcius then the booster heater runs at high output. After running at high output the fan in the booster heater continues to run until the unit has cooled.

[Guest T120]

Hi Masked Marauder

 

I think we are at crossed purposes :unsure: , the booster heater is for heating the engine coolent up, not for heating the rear cab, although like the front heater the coolent is used to heat the cab up :rolleyes: .

 

It is as said previously, these oil burners are so efficient that very little heat is given off when there running, so they take ages to warm up from cold, and even longer on a cold day, hence booster heaters were fitted to diesels to quicken the warm upand reduce engine wear :blink: .

[Masked Marauder]

Hi Masked Marauder

 

I think we are at crossed purposes :unsure: , the booster heater is for heating the engine coolent up, not for heating the rear cab, although like the front heater the coolent is used to heat the cab up :rolleyes: .

 

It is as said previously, these oil burners are so efficient that very little heat is given off when there running, so they take ages to warm up from cold, and even longer on a cold day, hence booster heaters were fitted to diesels to quicken the warm upand reduce engine wear :blink: .

I am not at crossed purposes, I know the booster heats the coolant and as you said, the coolant heats the car. But the fact is that the water from the booster goes through the rear matrix before it goes anywhere else, and low coolant temperature has little to do with engine wear these days.

 

The sole purpose of the booster is to heat the water warm enough to heat the car.

 

My sole purpose is to design a PCB derived module to allow the standard booster to be turned on at a set time, at high output, and drive the rear heater fan. And work is progressing nicely.

[GSMGuy]

MM - Please keep us informed on the progress of your work... I for one would be very interested in the results... Maybe worth starting a new thread??

 

Mike

[Guest fredt]

how are you going provide fuel for it to run with the engine off? depending on the model MK1 or 2, depends on how the unit is fed! on MK1's the unit is fed via the main fuel return pipe, so I would imagine the main fuel pump must operate in order to feed it? but on the MK2's it has its own feed from the fuel tank so only its pump would be required to operate

also if I read it correctly the system when used as a timed booster heater has a second coolant pump inbetween the front heater unit and the engine to shift the coolant around, it doesnt appear to use the after run pump!

if you get it working it will be a nice addition but I would worry about the liability issues around a non standard system and where you would stand if it did go bang and in the worse case caught fire! you know how insurance companies dont like paying out if they dont have to!

keep us informed on how it goes

[Masked Marauder]

The circulating pump needs only to pump 250 litres an hour, which is not much, about the same as your windscreen washer pump! The issue will be getting a pump that is reliable enough to put into the system.

 

As for the fuel issue, the metering unit is fed from the return from the fuel pump. It should be simple enough re-plumb it using a low flow fuel pump commonly available that would suffice, as it needs a supply of less than half a litre an hour at high output running.

 

At the moment the main issue I am having is finding a suitable timer, although it is possible that a digital central heating timer may be the way forwards.

 

It looks prudent that a sealed lead acid battery on a split charge relay will have to be fitted.

 

I did hope that the whole project was going to come in at sub

[GSMGuy]

Well, my breath is well and truly baited now...

 

Mike

[Guest T120]

As I said crossed purposes, re fredt addititional water pump???????????????? :unsure: see owners handbook re models with additional heating, page 60; which you can set to come on before you get into the car on a cold day. This all works through the cars ECM :rolleyes:

[Guest Andyb]

My Galaxy is in the work shop today and one of the things is for them to look at the preheater it comes on and off at any temp between 10c 15c but never below 10c or over 15c and it runs even when the water temp is 90c.

 

Also when this thing is running we get a tapping noise from under the floor when cold.

 

I will get back to you all with the answers ford give me on my problems with the re heater.

[Guest Andyb]

My Galaxy is in the work shop today and one of the things is for them to look at the preheater it comes on and off at any temp between 10c 15c but never below 10c or over 15c and it runs even when the water temp is 90c.

 

Also when this thing is running we get a tapping noise from under the floor when cold.

 

I will get back to you all with the answers ford give me on my problems with the re heater.

[Guest Andyb]

My Galaxy is in the work shop today and one of the things is for them to look at the preheater it comes on and off at any temp between 10c 15c but never below 10c or over 15c and it runs even when the water temp is 90c.

 

Also when this thing is running we get a tapping noise from under the floor when cold.

 

I will get back to you all with the answers ford give me on my problems with the re heater.