270CDI ages to warm up

[Danny DeVito]

Yes it's WIS a bit tricky at first to run and use but i am getting the hang of it now. Search all kinds of models and stuff. It needs the loopback adapter to work, and i have to disable the normal internet connection and i have to enable the adapter and wait till it says 'limited connection' otherwise it is all german blah blah blah no go away Ja

 

[walsi]

Cool, mine got used as frisbies a couple of years ago to save my sanity

 

[Danny DeVito]

If i can get any pages for you just ask but it will be on the slow train

 

[Rory]

I have just been out to mine to conduct a little 'experiment'.

The car has not been started for 2 days or so. My glowplugs are OK so I started normally and left the aircon on AUTO, but set the temp on both sides to max. Within 30 seconds, the air coming out of the vents had some measure of heat in it. In 5 minutes, the warmth in the cabin had melted the snow on the windscreen, without me setting the aircon to demist.

Hmm..I started my car this morning. It hasn't been run for some time (weeks), but it started OK.

The heater booster is set to auto on the dash computer and I left the heater controls on auto, temps to max, with the a/c on (light off) and it was a full 5mins before any kind of heat was detectable at the screen vents, even running the engine on fast idle.

I would love to understand exactly what the heater booster is, and how it works (on the heater air or on the car's water system?). All the handbook says is how to set it and that it'll work if the ambient temp is low and the engine is cold.

 

[walsi]

Hi ya Rory, if you look at the diagram above that Dannyboughtit has kindly posted you can see the basic layout of the booster heater, this is plumbed into the water system of the car and heats the block and the heater matrix untill the thermostat opens and then it helps warm all of the coolant. The water is circulated via the cars water pump or if it is an auxilary heater that runs without the engine circulation is via an electric pump but they both do the same thing.
You say it took ages for any heat to come, could it be that there is a set way for the heater to be set to get just heat as someone mentioned somewhere on here that they had a similar problem but they altered the way they had set the heater controls and they had heat almost straight away. Just a guess

Martin

 

[Rory]

Hi ya Rory, if you look at the diagram above that Dannyboughtit has kindly posted you can see the basic layout of the booster heater,

Nope, that's a different thing. The terminology is really confusing but the separate diesel powered heaters were rarely fitted to UK cars. It wasn't even in the option list for my car.

 

[walsi]

Hi Rory, you must be on anout the 1700W electric heater that is in by the heater matrix then. It was mentioned in this thread i think. I dont know anything about it other than it is like a conventional fan heater from the description just supplying hot air to the car interior

Martin

 

[renault12ts]

Nope, that's a different thing. The terminology is really confusing but the separate diesel powered heaters were rarely fitted to UK cars. It wasn't even in the option list for my car.

Don't know about that...I have one as do quite a few others on here.
.

 

[walsi]

I know i had one on my old E class aswell as the residual heater and my mate up the road has one on his 3ltr diesel merc (i think its an old E class) because you can hear it when he stops outside here in the morning but not wanting to start an argument i kept quiet

 

[Danny DeVito]

Rory my first question would be is it working ? Assuming all things are right it should be on and should have warm air pretty quick, so maybe it's not coming on. Martin said his unit makes a fair bit of noise. Maybe try it and have a listen or feel it or something. My old jeep had electric aircon and when the temp was set at first the air only came out at my feet, but then that didnt have a heater booster.

 

[Danny DeVito]

Is the heater booster optional ? I thought the programmable auxillary heaters would be optional and the booster would be standard fit ?

 

[Danny DeVito]

I've had a look at the stuff for the c270, the only booster heater seems to be the stationary heater which seems to be a totally different sort of a thing. Can't really get a clear picture of it. It's just a heater in line heating the water. It can be programmed to come , has it's own fuel feed, and it does the rest heating as well. What engine code is your car Rory or model code or whatever ? Either way i suppose it should heat up pretty soon. Can you program it to preheat ? I have a fault list here for it not starting .

 

[Rory]

I know i had one on my old E class aswell as the residual heater and my mate up the road has one on his 3ltr diesel merc (i think its an old E class) because you can hear it when he stops outside here in the morning but not wanting to start an argument i kept quiet

They seemed to be quote common on older Mercs, but auxiliary heating isn't even listed as an option on my car.

I'm sure that the booster fitted is an electric one and it doesn't appear to do anything, but then I've nothing to compare it with so I can't really tell. It's set to "auto" so, according to the manual, it should work if the outside temp is lower than 8C (which it obviously is) and the coolant is less than 70C. I ran the engine for 20mins today and it only just crept up to 40C. (outside temp was -2C).

Maybe there's something odd about how it works - perhaps due to the heavy current it takes the car has to be moving (I did run the car for a while at a fast idle).

Or perhaps it just isn't working?

 

[Rory]

I've had a look at the stuff for the c270, the only booster heater seems to be the stationary heater which seems to be a totally different sort of a thing. Can't really get a clear picture of it. It's just a heater in line heating the water. It can be programmed to come , has it's own fuel feed, and it does the rest heating as well. What engine code is your car Rory or model code or whatever ? Either way i suppose it should heat up pretty soon. Can you program it to preheat ? I have a fault list here for it not starting .

Thanks. My car doesn't have rest heating - you only get that with the more advanced climate system. I thinl rest heating is basically just a pump in the coolant system which keeps circulating when the engine is off - so it relies on the latent heat in the system, it doesn't add heat itself?

I think the engine code for my car is 612. It's a facelift W203 (2005 model year). I'd PM you the VIN but you need a few more posts before it'll work!

 

[whitenemesis]

Diesels will not warm up at idle you must work them (that is drive!!). Mine wil reach 80c within 5mls/10min wen driven.

The "Booster Heater" is electric and heats the cooling water. I get demisting heat in approx 30sec.

 

[whitenemesis]

Thanks. My car doesn't have rest heating - you only get that with the more advanced climate system. I thinl rest heating is basically just a pump in the coolant system which keeps circulating when the engine is off - so it relies on the latent heat in the system, it doesn't add heat itself?

Quite correct, a simple pump to circulate the coolant.

 

[Rory]

Diesels will not warm up at idle you must work them (that is drive!!). Mine wil reach 80c within 5mls/10min wen driven.

The "Booster Heater" is electric and heats the cooling water. I get demisting heat in approx 30sec.

I always thought it was a water heater.

Having said that, theres also a post from someone else with W203 who says the same thing as you regarding timing - he gets warm air before he's backed out of his drive.

Yet for an electric water heater, that strikes me as unlikely - could it really heat the water up sufficiently in 30sec that you could notice the heat coming through?

I did stumble across this link: Our Excellent Adventures Blog Archive The electrically powered hot-air auxiliary heater which is interesting as it talks about the heater power ramping up over 30secs. The only time I've ever experienced near instant heat was in an A180CDi courtesy car, and I know that they have PTC heaters. It was like someone turned a hairdryer on within a few seconds.

 

[EdmundIJones]

"Having said that, theres also a post from someone else with W203 who says the same thing as you regarding timing - he gets warm air before he's backed out of his drive. "

That was me, it takes about 10 mins to get to 40 degrees and then another 10 to get to 60 in this cold weather, it then just sits there.

I'm thinking therei s a thermostat problem to check out first.

 

[Danny DeVito]

Sorry mu software only dates to 2004,
So its seems the model onwards has an electric element in the water in the dash. A big powerfull heater which placed where it is will give near instant heat to the windscreen and interior. Thats cool or hot ...whichever. So Rory yours must be broken then. Have you checked fuses ? I suupose it would be a dash off to check power to the unti ??

 

[Rory]

Sorry mu software only dates to 2004,
So its seems the model onwards has an electric element in the water in the dash. A big powerfull heater which placed where it is will give near instant heat to the windscreen and interior. Thats cool or hot ...whichever. So Rory yours must be broken then. Have you checked fuses ? I suupose it would be a dash off to check power to the unti ??

Well, I think it has an electric water heater, but other posts seem to indicate that it's attached to the block.

As mentioned earlier though, I'm struggling to imagine that such an arrangement would produce noticeable heat through the vents in 30 secs. Think what effect a 3KW kettle has on cold water after 30 secs - not much! And the element in the car is less powerful, there's more water and it's colder to start with.

The car is going in for service soon, although based on my dealers usual performance they'll be clueless on this matter.