Eberspacher DILC

[Ian_Edwards]

I have a D1LC, six seasons old. It gives persistent problems, the microprocessor allows 5 "faults" and then Locks Up and won't start. A common fault is low Voltage, below 10.5v, this can occur quite easily on a small sailing boat, especially when the unit takes ~15amps to sart the glow plug. This year the system has locked out twice, the problem was a corroded inline fuse which was giving a high resistance. The only way to cure the problem is to take the unit out, which takes about 1 hour on by back in the cockpit locker, and return it to the service agent, who plugs it into a magic box and resets it. I then spend a further hour on my back refitting it.

Does any one know how to reset this beast whith out taking it out?

The manual gives the error codes and I've identified the wires in the control box.

Any help would be great! Other wise I might see how well it does as an anchor.


Cheers

Ian

 

[Stingo]

Had mine serviced about a year ago and now I am £360 lighter. Could have bought a nice little electric fan heater and err... ummm, come to think of it, the rates the marina was charging for electricary, the £360 was reasonable value for money.

Just thought I'd share that unless info with you. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stingo.co.uk>http://www.stingo.co.uk</A> - now showing at a computer near you

 

[petery]

Please don't tell me that this happens with their diesel water heaters as well.

I bought one second hand and did some testing before I installed - not worrying about battery volts etc - then it stopped. I put it in a boat jumble for next to nothing convinced that I had b******* it!

Seems like a revenue generating wheeze for Eberspacher agents.

 

[grays]

Probably teaching you to suck eggs but have you looked at the manual, you can download from www.espar.com, it gives all of the user serviceable items in it and a flow chart of shut down and reset sequences, sorry if you have looked already.

G

 

[pvb]

Lock outs....

Don't think you can reset it without specialist kit. The lock out process is of course intended to safeguard you against potential danger. According to the manual, the D1LC should allow 10 "no start" attempts before locking out. You can reset the control unit either by using a control unit tester (which I think you'll only find at an Eberspacher dealer) or by installing a "fault code retrieval device" which will (a) tell you why it's not working and (b) will reset the control unit.

The low voltage no start problem can be overcome by starting the engine before starting the heater, and then turning the engine off when the heater's running. You might also find it worthwhile beefing up the wiring from batteries to heater. I'd also suggest getting rid of the inline fuse and adding a bolt-in Mega fuse to protect the heater feed. Incidentally, the low voltage threshold is only 9.5v when the glow plug is on, so your batteries must be pretty well down.

For what it's worth, I've had Eberspachers on 3 boats and have had no problems with them. I keep the boat in the water all year round, so the heater gets used quite a bit. My current D3L is 13 years old and still works well.

 

[lauradee]

hey pete mines i working ok, ran it for 24 hrs this weekend, thanks for help, alan at TLC was a mine of info including teeling me about the 10 stops locking it out and to flick a power supply on the pump to prime it to save using up "lives"
stubate

 

[petery]

My DL1C is fine.

I fancied a hot water supply so I got hold of a second-hand D5W and played around with it - not knowing the '10 strikes and you're out' rule!

 

[johns]

i have got a d3lc which wont start it just blows the 15 amp fuse so, i was told to tri a 25 amp which never blew but stil doesnt start any ideas

 

[Ian_Edwards]

Re: Lock outs....

Thanks for the info'

The 5 lockouts came from the tech' who fixed last time and must refere to the 5 previous error codes you get from the diagnostic box. The low voltage turned out to be a 15amp car fuse hidden by the builder, which had corroded over the years to the point where the heat build up had started to melt the plastic. Yes, I'd cottoned on the the fact that starting and sutting down with engine running was the way to avoid low voltage. I only found the fuse by carefully tracing the wiring loom looking for a possible high resistance joint.

Does anyone know who would sell me a magic box and approximatly how much?

Cheers

Ian

 

[sfh]

Have a D3LC, it has locked out, had to remove control to have it reset, the heater came with the boat (used) because the heater draws fresh air and not recycled/heated air from the cabin the thermosat does not work "good idea!"