Eberspacher help please!

Philiz

Philiz

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Location
Staffordshire Moorlands U.K.
www.shabiera.co.uk
A mate has trouble with his Eberspacher. When it is switched on it tries to start up but doesn't seem to fire, it then closes down after about 20 seconds.

The story goes that his son was messing with the controller trying to set the programs up, I think he gave up but I'm told it did fire up briefly with a lot of smoke from the exhaust, then went off.

The controller unit is the same as mine and I can't see that anything as been changed which could cause the problem.

I've checked the fuel line, which is clear, but the fuel pump doesn't run when the heater is switched on. The pump does click, like it's doing one actuation, when power is put directly to it, but it doesn't continually pump. I'm guessing the controller sends signals to the pump to regulate the amount of fuel going in? I tried a spare pump he has, which does the same.

One other thing I've noticed is the backlight on the display flickers a bit when the unit is trying to start, don't know if this has any relavence.

The unit is a D4 and is only a couple of years old.

I know these things can be tempramental, anyone got any ideas?

Thanks in advance as always!
 
Flame sensor not detecting heat at outset.

Could just be the glowplug req cleaning or burnt out.

Filter in pump blocked (does pump tick at outset of demand) if not then its a sensor as it has to glow before fuel is fed into burner.

Check voltage at heater, if below 11v then check wiring for corrosion.
 
volvopaul said:
Flame sensor not detecting heat at outset.

Could just be the glowplug req cleaning or burnt out.

Filter in pump blocked (does pump tick at outset of demand) if not then its a sensor as it has to glow before fuel is fed into burner.

Check voltage at heater, if below 11v then check wiring for corrosion.
Click to expand...

No, pump only ticks (once) if power is put to it direct from the battery, it doesn't pump continually, just the one tick when connected to battery supply, no tick at all if not connected directly to battery.
I presume the pump filter is under the big nut on the supply end?
I'm assuming the glowplug is obvious once the casing is removed?
Is there any way of testing/bypassing the sensor (just to test)?
If so, where's the sensor?

Voltage at the pump is 12.8 volts. I've not tested it at the unit, I assumed it to be the same.

Cheers
 
The pump is a pulses derived magnet so wont work/pump just by connecting to a battery direct, by doing that you might have blown the coil in the pump!.

The pump works on a voltage pulse from the control box, simply on off on off etc pulling the pluger inside the pump to push fuel.

Sensor is inside, there are 2 and its a stripdown to find them, test with multimeter.

One thing, if you keep trying it, the control box will lockout, then you wll hve to get a dealer to unlock it.

Yes filter is on inlet end of pump.

If your not sure let the experts look at it before you do any lasting damage.
 
Well, we have just suffered a round of problems with our D4. Bottom line seems to be that;


  1. the unit was all coked up, and
  1. the very small in-line fuel fileter was almost completely blocked, thus starving the unit of an adequate fuel supply.

Now that we have had both issues sorted, all seems to be well!
 
volvopaul said:
If your not sure let the experts look at it before you do any lasting damage.
Click to expand...

Yer, bloody pen pushin old fart hammerchewers:rolleyes:
I reckon it's the Flux Capacitor!
Anyway, if yer were a 'proper mate' you should nick the bits off of yours
Anyway, Winters over now-- have you checked his airconditioning:p:D
 
90% of time its Volts Volts Volts.
10% is something else.

Always worth firing the horrid things up once in a while even in summer just to give it a good clear out.
 
oldgit said:
90% of time its Volts Volts Volts.
10% is something else.

Always worth firing the horrid things up once in a while even in summer just to give it a good clear out.
Click to expand...

Sorry cannot comment further on what sounds like control system stuff or low voltage. Note that there is info in the manual about testing fuel flow rates from the pump but if its not pumping at all I guess you are on track to the problem.
But just for the record,

I have been misled so many times by the so called dealers I service the D4 myself now. Dont know about the electronics but the mechanical stuff is dead easy. After talking to a lot of people and a bit of experience I have found,
Always set the unit on max heat for start up.
Always run it at least one time every month all through the year. Max heat.
It needs an internal clean up, particularly the combustion chamber every year.
Its rare for the glow plug to need replacing.

One other point that baffled me for a while. Unit was struggling to start even after a clean up. Lots of smoke, struggling to light the fire!! etc.
Eventually found the culprit was the combustion air intake silencer. The pipe from the silencer to the heater unit has a sort of internal lining of thin card or paper (guess for acoustic purposes) but that was breaking down and being pulled from the internal wall of the pipe so restricting the air flow. Poor thing couldnt breath!!! Got the silencer off at the moment and all is fine.

There is always something.
 
Just another thought, if the filter in the pump is blocked wouldn't the pump still tick as the unit tries to draw fuel in on start up? At the moment the pump remains silent, and before you say it, no it's not because I've blown it up! :o
 
Not sure about the D4 but D1 has flame & heat sensors, on the startup sequence if the resistance values of these fall out of range then no fuel is sent to the combustion chamber.

So if either sensor detects 1. no flame or 2. no heat, the pump stops and the unit shuts down, if the glow plugs ok then I would concentrate on fuel delivery and sensor values.

In the past I've rigged a momentary push switch in parallel onto the fuel pump and used this for primeing the fuel line, it came in usefull once when trying to diagnose a fault which turned out to be a blocked inlet filter, having started the unit it would run briefly then fail (fuel starvation) but by boosting the fuel supplied by opperating the push switch all was ok, but beware, the pump stroke is a metered dose so be carefull not introduce too much fuel, simillarly if the nut on the intput side of the pump is undone you will need to calibrate the fuel dose again (could cause overfueling which runs the heater too hot).

If you can get a manual for the heater the sensor and glow plug resistance values can be checked with a multimeter and the fuel delivery with a measuring jug.

The heavy smoke on a startup is unburnt fuel, typical behaviour after a few failed starts.

Check these simple things before pulling it all apart:

Voltage, must be over 12, even on startup, check voltage drop with a multimeter while starting to make sure it's not pulling the volts below this.

Check fuel filter on inlet side of pump.

Check resistance values of sensors & glowplug

Hope this helps.
 
enterprise said:
Not sure about the D4 but D1 has flame & heat sensors, on the startup sequence if the resistance values of these fall out of range then no fuel is sent to the combustion chamber.

So if either sensor detects 1. no flame or 2. no heat, the pump stops and the unit shuts down, if the glow plugs ok then I would concentrate on fuel delivery and sensor values.

In the past I've rigged a momentary push switch in parallel onto the fuel pump and used this for primeing the fuel line, it came in usefull once when trying to diagnose a fault which turned out to be a blocked inlet filter, having started the unit it would run briefly then fail (fuel starvation) but by boosting the fuel supplied by opperating the push switch all was ok, but beware, the pump stroke is a metered dose so be carefull not introduce too much fuel, simillarly if the nut on the intput side of the pump is undone you will need to calibrate the fuel dose again (could cause overfueling which runs the heater too hot).

If you can get a manual for the heater the sensor and glow plug resistance values can be checked with a multimeter and the fuel delivery with a measuring jug.

The heavy smoke on a startup is unburnt fuel, typical behaviour after a few failed starts.

Check these simple things before pulling it all apart:

Voltage, must be over 12, even on startup, check voltage drop with a multimeter while starting to make sure it's not pulling the volts below this.

Check fuel filter on inlet side of pump.

Check resistance values of sensors & glowplug

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks, voltage is well over 12

I'll check the filter next weekend.

Not sure where the sensors are, I can check the glow plug resistance but I'm thinking it's getting to the point where he needs an agent if these don't sort it.

I would still expect the pump to tick whilst the unit is trying to start up even if the filter is blocked though.
 
Last edited:
Philiz said:
Thanks, voltage is well over 12

I'll check the filter next weekend.

Not sure where the sensors are, I can check the glow plug resistance but I'm thinking it's getting to the point where he needs an agent if these don't sort it.

I would still expect the pump to tick whilst the unit is trying to start up even if the filter is blocked though.
Click to expand...

I think the pump will only run if the ECU detects no abnormalities anywhere else, ie sensors and glowplug resistance values are within tolerance.

Usually a manual will help with code number recognition, I will try to add a link to the D1Lc manual as an example.

Try reading through this, it's illustrated and could answer further questions:
http://letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/Eberspacher_Faults_2.html

Fault code list;
http://www.butlertechnik.com/Eberspacher-fault-codes

Link to Espar technical manuals (all models);
http://www.espar.com/www/espar.com/tech_manuals/
 
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