Eberspacher D4 heater

[GeorgeLlewellin]

My recently purchased 2004 Oceanis 323 has an Eberspacher D4 heater fitted which does not work correctly. There were items stored on top of it which pressed down on the heater and caused the motor and fan not to work. I have re-sited the heater so this will not happen again. Self diagnostics give no error at present but previous errors of 33 and before that of 32, which could be expected. The unit starts as if it is going to fire up, but there is no ticking of the fuel pump. If I continuously connect and disconnect a separate line to the fuel pump it works, I have tested the supply to the pump and there is a continues supply but no pulsating to make the pump work. Any ideas from the experts on this forum ? Thank you George.

 

[exfinnsailor]

Have you bleed the oil feed right upto the heater ..

 

[GeorgeLlewellin]

No I haven't, because the pump is right next to the heater and becuase there is no pulse to the pump power supply so the pump will not pump, unless I power it separtely.

Thanks for your reply, any other ideas anyone. George

 

[exfinnsailor]

Hi .. Ours is a Mikuni on a Beneteau 323 .. Pipe length from the engine filter is about 4m .. My pump did not pump until the oil was right to the heater .. Finished up sucking it through .. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif .. Thats why I asked .. One of the reasons for picking the Mikuni was that it does not lock out and need a service engineer with a laptop to unscramble it .. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[JerryHawkins]

Hi,

Error 32 is blower motor short-circuit and 33 is blower motor speed deviation greater than 10% from expected. This suggests to me that whatever was pressing on the unit distorted the case such that the blower fan was jammed. Does the blower motor start turning as soon as you switch the unit on? It should. The pump won't start until the system checks are passed and the blower is rotating at the correct speed. Have you downloaded the manuals from Eberspacher? If not, get them here: http://www.espar.com/documents/airtronic.pdf and http://www.espar.com/tech_manuals/AIRTRONIC%202-4/Airtronic%202-4%20TS%2006-2008%20EN.pdf Lots of other info to browse through here too.

 

[pcatterall]

I assume that you have resolved the fan issues . You have tested the pump out of circuit and it is fine. You have a constant voltage from the ECU to the pump which is wrong it should be pulsing. I am suprised that the heater is not giving you an error message ( 46,47 or 48 I think).
The bad news is that it sounds like your ECU has failed.
I can get (less) expensive D2 ECUs and will ask the supplier about D4s.
Hope I am wrong!!

 

[Dave_Rolfe]

As far as I know the fuel system is self bleeding once the pump pumps. I changed the filter at the fuel pump this winter on my D4 and it did not need bleeding manually.

 

[misterg]

My 0.02p's worth:

I think the D2/D4 exhibit this behaviour if they have overheated, but I would have thought that the diagnostics would have shown this ?? (don't know, never used them).

Daft point, but you need to completely remove power from the heater to reset the overheat fault. (i.e. pull fuses from heater and programmer if off a separate feed - if you've got the combined programmer / diagnostic unit, then there will be *two* supplies to that - possibly one coming from the heater supply).

Andy

 

[pcatterall]

Yes, the term 'bleeding' is a bit of a misnomer, it is just a case of getting the fuel through the system. If the fuel run is long you may have to go through many start up attempts untill fuel gets to the heater.
It is often a requirenent to disconnect the heater before restarting but in this case the unit is getting through most of the start up cycle and then failing. Disconnection would not assist in this situation.

 

[GeorgeLlewellin]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I answer some of the points raised as follows :-

If it has locked out, does it not give an error message, and how can I reset a lock out ?

Errors 33 and 32 are blower motor errors, but as detailed in the original question, these have been overcome by moving the heater so nothing bears down on it. The blower motor now works as normal, starting a few seconds after switch on but the pump is not activated, no ticking.

I think pcatterall is right and I need a new control unit, but I am surprised the current error number is 0.

Anyone know where I can obtain a reasonably priced control unit ?

Many thanks to all of you for taking the trouble to reply. George.

 

[pcatterall]

So no error shown, just normal operation, bit wierd!! If it was a D2 I would test it for you in a working unit but I have no D4s here.
I can get hold of D4 ECUs but they are still expensive. You may find a used one with a good ECU on ebay.

 

[misterg]

[ QUOTE ]
If it has locked out, does it not give an error message, and how can I reset a lock out ?

[/ QUOTE ]

If it is new(ish), then you need to remove all power from it, and try again. Apologies if you've already done this, but I didn't see it in your replies.

Andy

 

[jkcrundalls]

We also have a suspect D4 ECU, which I've just brought home from our boat (similar symptoms to George L). It has locked out and will only fan cold air. I am trying to get it tested and replaced if dead. The engineer I had look at it in Norway said there were two makers of ECU's for Ebersp, and the one we had was the unreliable one. He said that the ECU was inhibiting the fuel pump from working because it thought the cabin temp was too hot. No fault in cabin controller, so he thought the ECU had failed.

Interesting to hear you can make the pump operate by 12V pulses - never dared do that in case it wanted some other voltage.