Heater on lowest setting turns itself off

[zeratul]

I seem to be having a problem with the heater in my Cali T5 Beach.
It was 0 degrees last night and I wanted to spend the night with the heater time set to infinite and the minimal setting in terms of temperature. This works fine, heater starts. Initially the fans starts to make some noise, which gets better after a while. Once the car reaches some temperature threshold, it becomes a lot more quiet. But after a couple of minutes, it turns itself off completely. The heater display panel then shows the clock again. The car cools down and 30-60 minutes later I wake up from the cold and see that the heater is off. Turn it on again, but a couple of minutes later the same thing happened. This morning I tried to turn it on immediately after it shut itself down. I was not even able to change the setting or time anymore; as soon as I access the panel it shuts it down immediately. As if some kind of temperature protection kicks in?!

Then I tried at the maximum heater setting .. this way it seems to keep on working .. or perhaps because the car doesn't ever reach the target temperature. It was running fine for 2 hours... But this setting is way too warm for me.

Is this normal behaviour? I find that hard to believe. It should be possible to just set it to the lowest value and forget it, no?
What do others think?

I also tried 120minutes, it still turned of after 5-10 minutes.

Known cause?

 

[flying banana]

now you mention it. mine has done this too. I have t6 beach factory eberspacher heater.noticed it shutting off completely on low settings but not all the time. battery and fuel were good. it's like it hits the temp. powers down. then doesn't kick back in on infinite time setting. but it has only happened 2 or 3 times. and same thing on higher setting runs no problem but too warm. as I'm from Yorkshire that's pronounced waaaarm

 

[bvddobb]

We have had this. Was remedied by repairing the earth shunt. (just do a search here: heater/shunt) Thought that was no longer an issue since MY 2009 (GP/5.2), but have read reports since where people still had issues: not well connected, corroded, etc. Worth to look into.

 

[zeratul]

Thank you. It could very well be it. Unfortunately I cannot find any instructions as to how to repair this on a Beach. The aux heater is in a side panel. I have no idea where to find the earthing. Does anyone know?

 

[bvddobb]

I have no idea where to find the earthing. Does anyone know?

Ah, it's a beach! Don't know if they have it... If so, I would expect it to be close/next to your leisure battery somewhere, with the minus pole of the leisure battery connected to the earth shunt.

 

[MattBW]

I don't think the Beach has an earth shunt as it doesn't have the battery monitor like the SE/Ocean.

 

[jts46]

Was the vehicle connected to EHU ?

 

[zeratul]

No, it was not.

 

[jts46]

No, it was not.

That could be the problem. Battery not fully charged, i think the heater shuts down when below 10.5v,
I think.

 

[zeratul]

No, the battery was full. I drove 200km right before that.
Also, when I set the heater to max, it kept working fine. Just not at lowest setting.

 

[CALI FATE]

Oddly mine went off at the weekend - set on 3 - i must say the controller is not the easiest thing to operate and i just thought maybe i had started the timer when switching it on. Will keep a closer eye - and will plug into mains for a battery refresh

 

[MattBW]

It is very odd, you might think it was low voltage cut out, because the heater can draw a big load on start up, however the fact it works on high shows this isn't the case.

Very odd, I am at a loss, although could it be fuelling? Perhaps the heater needs the codes read to check for errors?

 

[Hotel California]

There has been lots of reports from aux-heater failure lately .
It's the time of the year offcoarse , people start using it now , but the aux heater needs to be run frequent (and on high setting for long periode ) .

I use mine a lot when away even when not actually needed i tend to run the heather each trip for a few hours .

 

[Amarillo]

We've had periods of low voltage in our T6 Beach battery recently and our heater has been used a lot - including several all nighters. It has performed flawlessly so far.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[zeratul]

Had the garage check what is wrong. They could "read out" the error from the car, and apparently the heater panel is failing and has to be replaced. Expensive part to replace I was told, but as the car was just briefly out of warranty and I've had this problem since the beginning, they are looking into what they can do. Will keep you posted.

 

[Emil Silenhag]

...but the aux heater needs to be run frequent (and on high setting for long periode ) ..

Agree.
Mine (Webasto Air Top 3500ST) was draining the batteries during continuous run on lower setting 1-2 of 10. Pulled 2-4 amps with frequently peaks at 15-18 amps (sometimes over 20). Turned out to be full of soot and therefore burned out on lower setting, couldn’t keep a flame. Glow plug had to ignite all the time, pulling a lot of amps from the batteries.
I’m planning on replacing the glow plug and burner my self in the spring. But for now a full day on highest setting 10 of 10 has cured the problem. No more peaks at over 20 amps.

 

[zeratul]

The heater front panel was replaced today. I just picked the car back up. Because it was just slightly out of warranty, I still got a 70% discount on the part. Still was about €200 though.
Anyway, if it's working now... will test it during the weekend.

 

[zeratul]

I hate to say this but after the replacement in January, the problem is now back.
Tried to use the heater over the weekend on lowest setting, and time infinite. I could not even get to select that time window, the display of the heater already turned itself off (back to the clock)...
It seems the problem is back.

Then I tried with the remote control, activated the heating successfully at level 3 (too hot, but still doable), I could use the front panel to set it to infinite, but it still turned itself off after 4h of running in the middle of the night.

This was after a 2h30 drive so the batteries must have been full.

So I might try this "full day on highest setting"... how much Diesel does that consume?

 

[CaliforniaDAN]

i believe that when the heater (on an SE) is on full blast it is a 1/3 of a litre per hour, no doubt a lot less when used at a lower themperatures.

 

[jts46]

5 litres on setting 5 for 36 hours

 

[zeratul]

Did a test yesterday evening. On max level it works fine for a couple of hours, on level 1 it turns off immediately; if I use level 1 after max level it turns off after about an hour.
I have a dealer appointment to have it fixed. Can this soot be removed somehow?

 

[MattBW]

An eberspacher technician may be far better than the dealer for sorting this out as they can read the actual fault code from the heater, I suspect VW won't have the foggiest idea and will just replace the whole unit as I suspect they read the fault code from the van not the heater itself.
Some googling for workshop manuals uncovered this fault finding procedure, I cant see VW doing this and not something we could do ourselves easily?

In the event of faults, first check the following points:
• Overvoltage cutout I Undervoltage cutout?

• Measure the voltage at the control unit.

• Fuel in tank? (on VW over 25% fuel)
•Fuses OK?
• Electrical lines, connectors, connections OK?
• Combustion air and exhaust lines OK?

• When combustion produces soot: Combustion air/exhaust line clogged?
• Metering pump conveying too much?. Measure fuel quantity, replace fuel pump
• Deposits in heat exchanger? . Replace heater exchanger and clean

 

[MattBW]

I don't think the Beach has an earth shunt as it doesn't have the battery monitor like the SE/Ocean.

@Joker 1299 please could you explain why this is wrong, I'm keen to learn if indeed there is an earth shunt potential problem on the beach too.

My understanding is that it has doesn't have an earth shunt like the SE/Ocean i..e the one that is used to feed the control panel with battery useage information (amps in and out etc) because the beach has no control panel.

There may indeed be other shunts (but I don't know so would be keen to learn) as part of the rcd or charging circuit but I believe they are different to the SE/Ocean and the beach isn't effected by this common fault.

 

[MattBW]

Oh and @zeratul have they checked simple things like battery connections are properly tight etc? I had some issues with my beach as the weaco fridge was cutting out under load and my heater shutting down occasionally and it was simply loose connections on my leisure battery. Tightened up and not missed a beat since.

 

[Emil Silenhag]

So I might try this "full day on highest setting"... how much Diesel does that consume?

Assuming it is a Webasto Air Top 3500ST (check your label in the door):