Missing fues??

[EdmundIJones]

Hi,

With the cold weather I was looking forward to using the cars Auxiliary Heater Boost thing to warm the car up quickly. However it doesn’t seem to work at all. The car takes quite a long time to heat up like all CDi engines and only then you get warm air into the cabin. I asked a mate to read the fault codes on Sunday and sure enough there was one relating to a fault with the Auxiliary heater control module (Lost communication I think it could have been)... this morning as it was cold I remembered to have a prod around. First off I’ll check the fuse... however I can’t find a fuse for it!

The fuse diagram says fusel 35 I believe but if I take a look there is nothing in there and there and it looks like it would need some sort or cradle for the fues. Could somebody give me some guidance, am I :
a. Looking for the wrong fuse
b. Maybe my car doesn’t have an Auxiliary heater boost thingy (It’s an O2 plate C270 CDi W203) and the instrument cluster has the settings in the menu to turn it on/off via EC and times to automatically turn on.



My indi mate said you should be able to hear it working (like a small paraffin heater) but I certainly can’t hear anything.

Any ideas before I start spending lots on having this investigated properly?

Thanks
Ed

 

[renault12ts]

Not being funny, but you do have one of these heaters? Not all do. I have one and there is a switch in the ash tray compartment for it.

 

[grober]

Stick your VIN number in here and it should tell you if your car is fitted with one. I doubt very much you have one to be honest. Mercedes-Benz Club Russia | Mercedes-Benz / VIN

 

[corned]

My car, admittedly a 211, doesn't have auxiliary heating, and neither does it have the menu options to set on/off/start times, etc in the cluster.

By having that, it does seem to imply to me that Edmunds' car may well have the option installed.

 

[EdmundIJones]

I thoguht from reading through posts on the site most CDi's had it because they take a long time to warm up?

I've taken a look at that site and it's not listed as an option but there are 5 additional options without entries or marked as unknown, if it helps my car is a Avantgarde 270 CDi Auto

What gets me is that there are all the menu options for it in the cluster so I can set stuff to turn on, surly if nothing was fitted, these would not be avalible?

 

[corned]

Edmund - I believe you're talking about two different things.

Proper MB auxiliary heating is an option whereby you can warm the interior of the car before you get into it. You can control it in much the same way as your domestic central heating system.

The diesel CDI heating is an electric heating element to warm the air output of the ventilation system only when you get in and run the engine.

Two separate systems!

 

[EdmundIJones]

Thanks for the tip.

In which case lets try this from a different point of view.

When I cycle though the cluster menu's I have an option to turn the heating on at specific times, e.g 6am

This seems to have no effect. - possibly it's not install or related to my next point.

When I start the car it can take at least 10 minutes before I get hot air coming into the cabin when it's cold outside. This roughly coincides with the engine temp getting up to normal opperating temperatures.

A heater somewhere does not appear to be working, maybe this is the CDI heating is an electric heating element you speak of....
?

 

[corned]

Mmmm...

I refer you back to post #4 - if the Aux Heating system is not installed, I am surprised that the cluster menu includes options to set it. That is not to say that it is certainly installed! In the 211, this system also has control buttons on the centre console, as well as the cluster menu options. Do you have any buttons on the console/dash which might relate to this?

The heat booster system, for when the engine is running, is shown in the 211 handbook as an option, so I can't say with certainty whether this was an option across all models (including CDI), or is it shown as optional because the manual is generic across all models (including petrol of course), and all CDIs do have it after all...

I don't think that helped much - did it?

 

[EdmundIJones]

Not much but I do apprechiate it!

At the end of the day some heater isn't working somewhere as it takes abotu 10 minutes of driving to get hot air. In contrast my 14 year old Pugeot 306 Style (most basic level) blows hot air within a minute or two.

 

[corned]

My final word on this! And it is one from a sympathetic perspective.

I am beginning to believe that my thermostat is on the way out. After some reasonable motorway work (in which the temp shows perfectly normal), my temp then drops noticeably down to 70 degrees-ish and won't recover until I am either back on a motorway, or stuck in standing traffic for a while.

I am not convinced that the temp in the car is as it should be when the temp drops, which is perhaps not too surprising.

The point being - my cabin can be slow to warm up too, and I wonder if a sticky thermostat might be the real underlying culprit?

 

[EdmundIJones]

That was one thought I had also...

 

[lynall]

This pic is the heater booster that bolts to the engine block and is electrically powered.

As said the fact you have the controls suggests to me you have the webasto diesel powered heater, ebay webasto heater.

I fitted one to my car in front of drivers side wheel behind bumper, i believe 203 is also fitted here.

This pic is the webasto unit which can be fired up via the timer you mention can also be done remotely telestart.

Lynall

 

[corned]

Am I right in thinking that the full central heating type of system should have a remote fob for operating from say inside your house? I think the 211 system has this?

 

[lynall]

Am I right in thinking that the full central heating type of system should have a remote fob for operating from say inside your house? I think the 211 system has this?

It can do and i believe its called telestart which works via a phone suprise! also i think you can get a remote fob with a certain range.

Mines just on a timer.



Lynall

 

[EdmundIJones]

An update, I took the car out today when it was 1-2 degrees outside.
It took 6 minutes for it to start to register any warmth coming through the vents (about 3 miles driving) it was at this poin the engine temp started to register on the bottom of the scale. The warth was a little.

Then after about 10-12 minutes the engine temp got up to around 65-70degrees, the bowers started producing proper hot air.

It sounds to me like the electric heater is not working, could this be linked to a dodgy thermostat?

 

[lynall]

Got to be worth a try it seems theres always someone on here changing a 220cdi or 270cdi stat.
Worth a search as iirc they also say as engine now runs hotter the mpg improves




Lynall