Heater slow / Auxillary heater

[Phil her up]

Hi All

I have a Seat Alhambra 1.9TD 115bhp 2002

The heater is slow to warm up in the mornings - more noticeable now we have cold weather. On a ten mile journey little benefit is felt until 7 or 8 miles have been covered.

There is an auxillary heater fitted at the n/s/r of the vehicle and I have searched through lots of threads to try and gain an understanding of it.

As far as I understand it runs on diesel and should cut in when the outside temperature is below a certain amount and then when it runs it should warm up the engine coolant.

I don't think mine is working; the car was registering 2 degrees C this morning and there was nothing coming out of the little exhaust on the unit under the car in front of the n/s/r wheel.

From what I can gather from threads it probably needs a new glow plug in the unit as it is a service item but i have three questions please: -
1) How do you get to the glow plug and how do you change it?
2) Do you get the plug from a Seat dealer or is there an alternative route?
3) Does the car need plugging into a diagnostic unit (like modus) to have fault codes reset before the heater will run with a new plug fitted?

Thanks for your time

Phil

[matthewgdavies]

Taking your questions in order:-
1). If new glowplug needed, original part (made by BERU for VW) is obtainable here - vwspares.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=54
Beru short part code GH001

2). Good aux heater dismantling/re-assembly instructions (with pictures) are on fordgalaxy.org - tech section/ faqs, common questions and solutions (page 6) - you need to register but it's free soak all visible screw/bolt heads in wd40 in advance

3). Check with VCDS should show (if glowplug is at fault) 4 x repeated flameout errors followed by 1 x system lockout error - system will NOT restart until these errors are cleared - note if you clear the faults before replacing glowplug then it will lockout again if system fails to start another five times

Ideally you should approach in order 3) (to confirm faulty plug) then 1) then 2) then 3) again - be warned that when fixed it will smoke like mad for a day or three until any unburnt diesel in the unit burns off - it's best to make a number of short journies to keep the unit running until all excess diesel is gone

[matthewgdavies]

Oops, sorry, replied from memory and now see I've numbered the reply points wrongly, sure you can follow it though DOH!

[Phil her up]

Oops, sorry, replied from memory and now see I've numbered the reply points wrongly, sure you can follow it though DOH!

Thanks for all this, i will keep this thread updated with how I get on.

I think you did get the numbers right but the 6 from (page 6) just happens to sit under the 3)!

Thanks

Phil

[matthewgdavies]

Sorry, meant my answer 1) answered your question 2) etc.
Good luck, remember plenty of WD40 - the heat from the unit seizes the screws/bolts pretty solid

[Phil her up]

Well I have now managed to replace the glow plug. Removing the auxillary heater was fairly straight forward, it did need some WD40 on the bolts and the bolts working out and in etc to free them off. I did have trouble getting the end plate bolts out of the heater though. I did the trick of cleaning the star drive slots on the ends of the bolts with WD40 and digging out the corrosion with a needle etc. but they still would not come undone. I ended up having to take it to a relatives workshop and he heated the aluminium casing around the bolts and they then came out ok. You have to be careful not to melt the casing though - we caused some superficial damage. While the unit was off the car I just joined the two coolant hoses with some copper pipe (19mm I think) and plugged the fuel pipe with a bolt.
I then got a friend to use 'Modus' to clear the fault codes and as soon as they were clear the heater sprung into life (It was about 7.5 degrees C outside, engine was cold and was running).
So now I get much more heat from the heater but it is still taking an age to warm up in the morning so I am going for a new thermostat next.
Watch this space...

[Phil her up]

Oh, I forgot to ask;

It looks like the thermostat is at the engine end of the bottom hose and not the top hose (looking at engine from front of car it is on left hand side behind alternator). Is this correct? - and if so, is it best to remove alternator to get access?

Thanks

Phil

[Phil her up]

Apologies for all these posts!

... has anyone done a complete coolant change on their Alhambra?

Considering the pipework going back to the aux heater, are there any problems with trapped in the system if you do a complete drain down?

I am just wondering whether to only remove the thermostat and replace what coolant is lost there or whether to treat the system to a complete renewal?

The last thing I want is an air lock and engine overheating.

Thanks

Phil