Preheater

[Guest jup]

I have a galaxy tdi 2001,and i

[Guest vr6galaxy]

preheater? you mean the programable aux heater? if so you will have a set of timer controls and a digital clock mounted into the head lining above the rear view mirror?

if you mean the aux heater? just look under the car just infront of the rear passenger side wheel, if you have one it will be mounted just there? if it's not :o then take it back and ask where it's gone? :P as all TDI's have one and even the occasional petrol Galaxy has been known to have one as well! :o

[Guest jup]

i

[Guest vr6galaxy]

It is, you only need the timer controls fitted and your away :o you have the heater fitted all ready :o

[Guest jup]

Thanks a lot :o

You have made my day less expensiv :o

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Thanks a lot :o

You have made my day less expensiv :o

glad to hear it :P take a look at a website that mamufactures these units and the controls for them

 

http://www.webasto.co.uk/am/en/am_automobile.html

[Guest Enzo]

preheater? you mean the programable aux heater?

I think this is vehicles with the extra glow plugs that also heat the engine coolant....

 

In the plastic outlet at the end on the cylinder head where the radiator hose goes on, some have a different outlet, and has three glow plugs in there, that heat the coolant, so the vehicle is at running temp alot quicker, and is kept at its optimum running temp even in extreme cold weather.

 

I dont know if it was just meant for vehicles for use in colder countries, but have seen it on a few TDi Golfs in the UK.

[Gadgetoid]

I'm also thinking about converting the supplementary heater to a parking heater. Found this interesting web page with a Eberspacher Hydronic D5WZ which looks damn similar to the Galaxy aux heater :lol: .

 

http://www.auto-electricals.co.uk/acatmore/hydronicbdws.html

 

They include a refurbished heater in the

[Masked Marauder]

I looked into this and discussed it with an electronics designer. You need a water pump, timer and some relays. You may also want a sealed battery under the front seat and a split charge relay to make sure the heater does not flatten the main battery.

 

My research stalled with the nicer weather in the spring..... It may resume some time soon.

 

And the heater unit on that web site does indeed look identical to the VW item.

[Gadgetoid]

From the advert it looks like you get a pump + timer + connections in the upgrade kit. Not sure about relays. Also not sure why an extra battery is required - unless the water pump draws an awful lot of current. I'd always assumed the second battery option was there to make sure there was always plenty of amps to drive the electrical gizmo's used more in the winter, like the front & rear heated screens.

Doesn't having a second battery tend to prolong the life of the starter battery (assuming you wire them up properly).

I have seen some posts on this forum which talked about glow plugs in the coolant circuit, but never from anyone who has spoken sense elsewhere :lol:

[Masked Marauder]

The way the basic heater works is as follows:

 

Power from the ALTERNATOR is fed to the unit. When it detects this power it sends power down thought the ambient temperature switch and the coolant temperature switch. If this current returns through the switches to the unit then the control unit checks the fan can spin and the glow plug is working.

 

If these conditions are met the fan spins up, the glow plug glows and the unit turns on the fuel metering pump and the heater lights. All of this happens over a few seconds.

 

As you can see the basic unit needs the engine running. This is not only because the engine has to run to work the water pump, but you also need the fans running and it all uses power.

 

So what I looked at was a home-made version of the timed heater unit that is available as an option on some models. This has an additional electric water pump, a battery, a split charging relay and a timer. The timer is the hard bit. I was struggling to find a 12V clock/timer. I spoke to a friend who suggested a cheap digital alarm clock with the output set to trip a miniature relay, but the problem is that you want something that will stay closed for a timed period, typically a digital alarm will only sound for a minute. My friend then went off to work on an in-car HUD for a client and the spring was upon me and the impetus was lost.

 

Since then I have given it some serious thought and have not given up on the idea, I just have to check a few things. It may end up that it works by remote control rather than a timer though.

 

But first I have to get my own heater working, it has a dead glow plug and won't talk to VAG-COM even though it attempts to start before it finds the failed glow plug.

[Masked Marauder]

I have seen some posts on this forum which talked about glow plugs in the coolant circuit, but never from anyone who has spoken sense elsewhere :lol:

Some Audi diesels have these, two or three in a metal housing in the cooling system.

[Gadgetoid]

MM, I stand corrected about glow plugs for the coolant of Audi's but I think I'm correct that there are none in Shalaxys.

 

Thanks for the other post, I am enlightened with respect to the workings of the basic auxiliary heater, but still can't figure out why you need a whole second battery if you want to run it as a parking heater. Surely an electric water pump, fan in the heater unit and the A/C fan are unlikely to drain the main (starter) battery to the point of being unable to start the car unless left on for many hours.

I've seen the second battery described as a leisure battery - thought one might be useful to have under the seat, but only to have a 12v supply independent of the main vehicle electrics, so the aftermarket DVD players, fridge, etc... don't get 'unplugged' by the voltage drop whenever the starter motor is engaged.

A split charge relay looks to be easily available and cheapish - though it looks as if you shouldn't buy the cheapest available as they will preferentially charge the battery with the lowest charge rather than the starter battery by default. You could probably buy the rest of the kit & caboodle from Frauds ( if I had Microcat I might be able to see there is a fancy plastic mounting box for the second battery to sit in, possibly to prevent acid spills, but of course that program is not available legally). Prices at the usual premium though :lol:

[Guest vr6galaxy]

The OE set up for the timer controlled heater has a second battery, it also has a operating of thirty minutes max and then it turns off! this is so it doesnt drag the battery's down!

the second battery mounted under the drivers seat does have a battery box