Webasto heating fuel pump

hornblower

hornblower

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Our Webasto is less than a year old and hardly used (maybe once or twice for very short periods) - the boat (commissioned in May 07) is based in Croatia and yet the pump seems to have failed already.

Does anyone have any information on this equipment?
 
Sorry to hear your webasto does not work. Does yours have an exhaust with a screw on cap. I certainly have forgotten to remove the cap on occasions and surprise, the heater does not work! Webasto advise that the heater should be run once a month come heat or cold, so light use may be the cause of the problem. The webasto head office were helpful when I needed to find a service agent in Mallorca. Have you tried them?

TudorSailor
 
We had some issues with our Webasto - when we spoke to the engineer in the UK (Keto Marine) he said the fuel pumps hardly ever fail - the chances are the unit is sensing a fault during it's pre-start-up checks and therefore never gets to the point where the fuel pump kicks in.

You need to find out when the unit stops (there is a start-up cycle and it stops when it finds a fault, therefore knowing exactly when it stops allows you to identify the component which it sensed a fault with - either do this using a stopwatch and the workshop book, or on more modern ones the LED flashes on the control panel and the number of flashes indicates the problem.

You can easily check whether the pump works by tapping the terminals on the pump with a 12v supply (do not apply a 12v supply continually as this breaks the pump, the supply must pulse - I attached the -ve and tapped the +ve onto the terminal to achieve this) - you will soon tell if the pump is working.

Good luck

Jonny
 
The pump starts working and a small amount of heat starts and then the pump seems to fail.

There seems to be 10 quick flashes and then one long on the green LED at the heater control.

I have not seen a screw cap on the exhaust outlet but will look for one next time I am on board in two weeks time - maybe that is the answer.

Will also check with Webasto.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Our Webasto is less than a year old and hardly used (maybe once or twice for very short periods) - the boat (commissioned in May 07) is based in Croatia and yet the pump seems to have failed already.

Does anyone have any information on this equipment?

[/ QUOTE ]

Please explain what you mean by seems to have failed? If its stopped ticking, but when you touch 12 volts directly to the pump repeatedly you can hear the pump clicking then its some fault in the control circuit or even as simple as the power line to the pump has come off.
If the pump is ticking then its trying to pump fuel and the problem is most likely to be a bit of dirt in the fuel line. You have got a prefilter? If not get a push fit filter from Halfords for a £ or so and stick this in the fuel line near the pump and you wont get that problem in the future. If you suspect dirt its worth taking the pump off and banging the inlet pipe down on a piece of wood, if there is a bit of grit in the inlet it should pop out. If all else fails try angling the pump, the webasto installation instructions are contradictory, in one place it says mount the pump horizontally in an other it shows the pump at 45 degrees. My Webasto worked for years but this year it plays up during the ignition sequence unless the pump is mounted at 45 degrees or more the heater shuts down, I think it must be a sticking internal check valve.
 
Last time I got the 10 quick flashes etc. it was because the only outlet I have was accidently closed, causing the unit to overheat and cutout. Once the outlet was cleared all was back to normal.
 
Its not the quick flashes its the slow ones following the quick flashes


Step one : get a manual and read the fault code list. Google gives many hits - the top one for me was
http://www.menja.info/Om_Menja/Teknisk_informasjon/Webasto_AT_3500-Operating_manual.pdf
As far as I can tell this is the same logic as the AT2000D which I have.


The single flash simply means 'didnt start' . I get this when the fuel feed has air in it . The pump will eventually prime the fuel line to the heater but it may take several 'turn on, wait for error code, turn off, wait for shutdown' loops to get the fuel through. This is another reason for running the heater regularly, it pushes through any bubbles from small air leaks in the fuel pipe..
Also in my case this can happen because the fuel pickup for the heater is slightly above the takeoff for the engine in the fuel tank, I once had the sequence where the heater indicated this fault code coming up river to the fuel berth, and then as I was completing the manoevers into the fuel berth, the engine died through running out of fuel ....
 
The single long flash code denotes failure to start (usually through fuel starvation) on the airtop series webasto. The causes could be that the fuel pick up pipe is not dipping into fuel ,or the pre filter is blocked, possibly by a jelly type diesel bug due to old, water contaminated fuel being stood a long time. In autumn 2007, I permanently removed my tank pick up pipe and fitted it to a plastic 10L portable container with NRV airvent and leak proof pipe entry. I also changed the pre filter for a Halfords cheapo. I had to start the heater about 8 times before the fuel had bled through the new system . Each of the 7 failures showed the one long flash failure code. It takes patience but if you put a torch against the clear fuel pipe at the heater end, you can see tiny bubles of fuel moving along the pipe each pump click, when all is well. The portable tank conversion is so that I now run the heater on cheaper parafin, or heating oil or White Derv if necessary. This prevents premature carbonising of the burner and expensive failures.Good luck
 
I had same problem this year, do you have metal cylindrical fuel conditioner between tank and pump? I was advised by Keto to remove this as it is designed for canal boats that have dreadful fuel and if fuel is good it is not needed, he also said they can fail letting in lots of air. I had also mounted pump vertically, it should be horizontal. Keto also supplied clear plastic fuel line which means you can see if lots of air is in the system. My advice is definitely to phone keto and speak to an engineer (not receptionist who gave dodgy advice)
 
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