eberspacher update

[zingaro]

I posted this a few weeks ago so I am just updating the forum. Just had eberspacher service agent out as my heater is failing to start,the fan is working and the fuel pump is working,but it is coming up with fault 052. Anyhow 45 minutes later all is fine and running well,he put it down as air in the system so needed bleeding,tested a couple of times to make sure it started up all seem fine.Paid the £52.50,guess what come the next morning would not start again,recalled the engineer he cleared the same fault again with his electric gizmo's and it started again. He said that I Probably need a decoke, as it has never had one if it goes faulty again. Left it a few hours and it would not start again so I removed the heater from the boat along with the pump and dropped it at their service centre and asked them to sort it.The heater is less than 3 years old and it is the D4 model.It had a new glow plug and mesh fitted to it last year so this seemed fine. Anyhow received a phone call from them,bad news I'm afraid its the brain that has gone faulty or module the part alone is £260.00 +VAT apparently the glow plug is not getting hot enough at the end of it due to the brain not supplying it enough voltage so hence it is not starting up the heater.He said he will have a word with eberspacher for me to see if they will do something with the part as it is out of warranty,and I stated that I thought the life expectancy would have been longer than 34 months as it has had little use. I await the result I will let the Forum no the result when I hear from them. Now for the update called at the dealer last week to see if they got any joy from eberspacher,they told me as it was out of warranty they would not replace the ECu unit.I told them in that case to take there new unit out and give me the my old unit back. The reason for this is I am in partnership with another boat that we keep in Fleetwood that is fitted with the same heater and is less than two years old so I thought I would swap the ECU unit with this one that is still covered by warranty and then get the service agent in Preston to fix this heater and give the agent in Scotland the ecu that is working to fit in my heater for the boat in Scotland.Thought I would play Eberspacher at there own game as I thought that it had gone faulty prematurely. But guess what when I fitted the supposedly fault ecu unit into my heater to try it fired up first time and run without any problems. I will retry tomorrow and see if it is still working.All ready the service agent has decoked my heater thinking that this was the initial fault which obviously it was not then tell me that it is the ecu that is at fault again this seems to be wrong diagnosis again cant wait to see my bill from them.I will be getting them to fit the heater into the boat in the next couple of weeks to see if they have cured the problem before I give them any money.Sorry for the long post but it makes me wonder if they were trying it on.I will post the final outcome and bill when I get the heater fitted might also name and shame them if I think the bill is extortionate

 

[NathanEllis]

Hi
It has been spooky reading your page above as i have just expeirenced the same problem myself. I have a sealine s38 and i switched off the batteries on the boat apporox 18months ago not knowing that the heater has a cool own period and by switching off all of the power this caused the heated to "cook" itself. I had the heater removed and totally, as i thought , reconditioned, the cost of which was shared y myself and sealine, I have had exactly the same problems as you have since and now that it has packed up all together they have now tole me it is the " brain "bit of the heater. I have en back to sealine today who firstly stated that the repairs are out of a 12 month warentee. I told them that the item has be fit for purpose and that wether or not if its out of 12 month warentee, ( sale of goods act ). They are coming back to me tomorrow with an offer. I have been told by several people that this is a common fault with this type of heater and eberspacher are aware of the fault. By the way i have been quoted 275 for the part plus fitting so i think they seem to be charging about the same. Good luck and hoe you get it all sorted, Nathan

 

[iangrant]

Had the same - awful service from ebersplutter dealer even on a new one installed by them they started trying to charge to reset the dam thing. In the end they swapped it for a new one to test the installation (theirs) and it worked ok - guess what they wanted to put the original one back - er don't think so.
Even that one got flakey before we went off south enough to not need it. Sold tht boat eventually and new boat has a webasto that i installed and had no problems whatsoever apart from a decoke earlier this year which was easy to do.

Never trusted the ebbersplutter.

Ian

 

[Wiggo]

Hmmm, well we had the same problem. It would start and light, but almost immediately shut down, or at best it would get lukewarm, run for ten minutes and shut down. Thereafter, it would not restart unless it had been completely powered down.

I took the unit out and decoked it thoroughly to no effect, so I took it to Espar in Marlow. I had a number of long conversations with Chris and Martin there, who were incredibly helpful. The unit ran fine on the bench, so I went back to teh boat and removed the fuel pump. When they tested it, it was delivering roughly half the fuel it should have been, explaining the low heat and reluctance to fire. They rebuilt it and recalibrated it rather than trying to flog me a new one.

Anyhoo, when I refitted it to the boat, it still played silly buggers and the pump would not self prime. I sucked diesel through the tube to prime it and it lit but still had the same problem. Close inspection revealed a lot of tiny air bubbles in the clear fuel line from the pump to the unit. I spoke again with teh guys as Espar and we believe that their is a split somewhere in the pickup line, so for just under £50 I have a new fuel line and the dip tube that goes into the tank. I will refit this weekend and let you know how I get on.

 

[zingaro]

I would check but all eberspacher heaters have a 2 year warranty on them so you should be able to get eberspacher out to fix it for you.Mind you they will probably tell you that it needs a decoke which is chargeable.

 

[jparham]

I had a different problem......no life atall.......but the 'brain' needed replacing. £220 on ebay for a new one and I fitted it in half an hour - easy if you've read how (the brain removal/refit instructions are on the web somewhere).