Heater booster W211 E320Cdi Driving me mad

[HarrisonHco]

Hello,

I have a faulty heater booster, ive checked the fuse according to star and WIS, the fuse is fine so i think it has to be the heater-booster itself or the control unit or something? Star tells me Zero amps when it is actuated so i think the unit itself may be faulty, does anyone happen to know where the control unit is?

has anyone had any experience with this and do you really need to remove the entire dashboard to access the booster

this is driving me crazy as i can drive for 15 minutes before i get any sign of warm air coming from the vents, especially when there is a heavy frost i cant defrost the car effectively at all! its a nightmare!


Thanks,

Harrison

 

[mersum1es]

what model year your car is? My 2004 had 6 elements where one was duff (star showed individual currents for each element... cannot recall if that was is developer side). Later (IIRC my C219) has three readings (or one )....check WIS instructions, it will give a function, component location etc. Yes, it is whole dash off job, unfortunately.

 

[HarrisonHco]

what model year your car is? My 2004 had 6 elements where one was duff (star showed individual currents for each element... cannot recall if that was is developer side). Later (IIRC my C219) has three readings (or one )....check WIS instructions, it will give a function, component location etc. Yes, it is whole dash off job, unfortunately.

Thanks for Replying,

Star Displays me a Overvoltage, Undervoltage and Percentage activation. as well as Current supplied to it.


If i delete the error code it says 0 amps, if i then use it it pings a new error code and says 255 amps and with both fault..

my star doesnt seem to have that option as it seems mine is literally 2 terminals to the heater,


i cannot on WIS find any decent info on removing the whole dash, is it a DIY Job? ive got time on my hand but not alot of confidence!

 

[Major774]

Check this out.

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[HarrisonHco]

what model year your car is? My 2004 had 6 elements where one was duff (star showed individual currents for each element... cannot recall if that was is developer side). Later (IIRC my C219) has three readings (or one )....check WIS instructions, it will give a function, component location etc. Yes, it is whole dash off job, unfortunately.

Sorry Didnt even answer the question... its a 2003 E320 Cdi 211.026


i've got WIS which states its inside the dash, but is there a easier way to confirm it has a fault? EG read the resistance from the Fusebox to the Heating element or something???


Don't fancy fully dismantling the dash to realise its something else, i've checked the fuse and all is fine.

Raymond: i just saw that video, thanks! do you think i actually need to remove the unit to get to the PTC and therefore have to re-purge the AC system? or is there another way!


Thanks guys for your input its very helpful

 

[DSM10000]

Not related to your post but I would not be publishing my postcode on the web s you have in your location info

 

[HarrisonHco]

Not related to your post but I would not be publishing my postcode on the web s you have in your location info

I Didnt even realise that was public when i made an account, whoops!


Thanks for the heads up. mines the one with the battered E320 on the driveway

 

[Major774]

I have no idea on the heater booster, I am not much of a electrical guy my self.

If the actual heater booster is busted then it's a dash off job, which means making your own video without the techno music haha.

 

[HarrisonHco]

I have no idea on the heater booster, I am not much of a electrical guy my self.

If the actual heater booster is busted then it's a dash off job, which means making your own video without the techno music haha.

Time lapse here it goes.

to just test the heater booster do you know if you can access the matrix without removing the AC compressor lines?
I’m trying to check everything before allowing a couple of days for the dash off

I may wait to check if the heater booster isn’t working 100% even though star says theres a fault.

 

[HarrisonHco]

So, Have been playing a bit more with star and the heater booster....


I managed to turn it on i believe, the engine strained alot more at idol and the voltage dropped by 0.8 volts when full heating was applied. it did this while i was in the variant coding menu with all the german i dont understand.


so it cant be faulty as it works when variantcoding menu is open (thank god for that no dash removal YAAY)

My next quandry is now how the hell do i get it to work normally!!! Is it a variant coding setting,


I have a Feeling that my passthru kit may be generating that error by itself as it cant communicate to the heaterBooster control unit. therefore creating an error, which may of been a complete misleader.

 

[gurpz]

A lot of information about this here:

2+ weeks in with the CDI

www.benzworld.org

 

[HarrisonHco]

So After fiddling in Development Data in star... i managed to change tha parameters on how the heater booster is activated, which worked very well and now its fully functioning when the engine is cold. it also works with air con off and on, by default the AC has to be on for it to work and heat on max.....

Problem solved, thank god for STAR Diagnosis hey!

 

[mersum1es]

Good you got it working...

Just one question; You said you got zero amps when actuated by star... that shouldn't be parameters related?

I also digged (in simulation mode) heater booster parameters, looks like I remember wrong seeing of individual PTC element currents, only left/right can be measured indivdually. But all six elements have short/open circuit monitoring.

I didn't check what parameter would prevent disabling heater 15 min from start... who s'has changed it because its not default for sure... sounds crazy.

 

[HarrisonHco]

Good you got it working...

Just one question; You said you got zero amps when actuated by star... that shouldn't be parameters related?

I also digged (in simulation mode) heater booster parameters, looks like I remember wrong seeing of individual PTC element currents, only left/right can be measured indivdually. But all six elements have short/open circuit monitoring.

I didn't check what parameter would prevent disabling heater 15 min from start... who s'has changed it because its not default for sure... sounds crazy.

Mine didn’t have any option to see what each six elements were open/shorted... only had PTC Amperage as a integer... now when I did this I had a cheap PassThru connector, I’m receiving the star multiplexer in a few days so shall confirm, but the passthru device is saying no current when actuated, and I can’t hear the engine labour when it’s on like I usually can if I do it manually. Weird.

what concerns me more is the car has been in my family since brand new and was given to me by my grandfather, who mainly took it to MB dealers and trusted indies.. so who’s been fiddling with it!!!!