yet another eberspacher problem

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bertiebasset

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Hi, Been to the boat recently and found the eber D1lc heater not working. ordered service kit and yesterday fitted the parts but same result. If i can explain the problem hope someone may shed some light on it...... purchased boat last year in the summer and really cannot remember if i ever used the heater and during the winter i thought it failed due to low voltage as it cut out after about 3 or 4 minutes, however I recently replaced house bank and fitted bm1 battery monitor, but in replacing house bank had to remove panel on top of fuel tank which meant disrupting fuel uptake for heater. Now when I turn on the heater (rheostat) it draws around 22 amps and can hear the blower start, pump start pumping, (have watched it and there seems to be minute air bubbles in supply of fuel from pump), amps draw is lowered and hot air is blown from outlet. smoke from exhaust wich clears. after around 5 minutes, the pump stops, amps rises in pulses and after 10 mins blower stops. If I restart immediately the same thing happens. It seems to actually start up and blows heat so burner starting then goes through a complete shut down. The tank is on port side and heater inside stbd cockpit locker which I can just fit inside. My thoughts are air in fuel creating a flame out but have ordered new rubber and jubilee clips so awaiting them. Changed glow plug gauze and foam ring inside, cleaned and new gaskets (no gasket on glow plug) also found fibre washer and thought it came from top of glow plug so cut down from gasket to make a new one so top of glow plug is now nut, gasket washer, cable assembly. i know it goes on but nearly froze last night and would really get to the bottom of this. Please help :confused:
 
One thing that will cause the heater to shut down is the thermostat on the air intake. If I leave the locker shut where the heater is installed then it will close down once the air in the locker gets to a certain temperature. I must admit mine takes rather longer than 5 minutes but perhaps yours is a small or very full locker?
If I leave the locker partly open the heater will run continuously. Try it, it may be a very cheap fix.:)
 
alahol2 said:
One thing that will cause the heater to shut down is the thermostat on the air intake. If I leave the locker shut where the heater is installed then it will close down once the air in the locker gets to a certain temperature. I must admit mine takes rather longer than 5 minutes but perhaps yours is a small or very full locker?
If I leave the locker partly open the heater will run continuously. Try it, it may be a very cheap fix.:)
Click to expand...

Thanks Alahol but have run with locker open, it houses my fenders so although full there is plenty of air around to circulate, It draws air for combustion from outside locker and heating air from inside cabin by galley. did also try running with locker empty and lid open so still think it may be thes air bubbles that are causing the problem, looking for agreement/confirmation really i suppose
:)
 
The manual suggests either fuel supply problems or low voltage both of which you have in hand but worth another check (remember to check the fine filter in the pump inlet port). Also check that there is no restriction in the exhaust hose as this can cause a shutdown..
 
Just read your reply to Alahol2.

A previous thread discussed the dangers of recirculating heating air from the cabin. Most seem to recommend heating air to be fresh not from the cabin - I agree.
 
Hi old salt, voltage is good, think that was the problem during winter but with 2 new 88amp batteries and plugged into mains and charging voltage is 13.5v. Gauze filter under pump checked, clean but still blown through, replaced. still thinking could be fueld delivery. line from tank is copper to bottom of pump with rubber section, pump, rubber section, clear pipe, rubber section to heater. Very tight in locker so waiting for more spares before replacing all rubber sections at once.
Strange thing from Eberspacher help desk said unit is old and not to spend too much money on repairs, better to replace with new unit,,,,
yeah at £7 - 800 you bet :)
 
theoldsalt said:
Just read your reply to Alahol2.

A previous thread discussed the dangers of recirculating heating air from the cabin. Most seem to recommend heating air to be fresh not from the cabin - I agree.
Click to expand...

But the good book states if using rheostat you must recirc air from heated area (cabin)to allow internal thermostat to find when to shut down/reduce blower speed as there is no thermostat in cabin.
 
Yes, I see your point if no cabin thermostat. Mine has a cabin thermostat.

Just a thought. If the thermostat is in the air intake line, could it be faulty and shut down the eber early? I remember someone suggesting a while ago, bypassing (electrics) the thermostat to see if the eber keeps running.
 
If the thermostat is internal does that mean it cannot be adjusted or do you have to crawl into the cockpit locker each time you need to adjust it ?
 
Reading the literature it is an overheat thermostat, when the cabin (intake)temp rises the sensor must send a message to slow the blower, if the temp reduces it then increases blower speed, the rheostat goes from 1 to 4, if in position 1 then the unit switches off when temp is achieved and restarts when temp cools. the temp in the cabin last night was not sufficient to trigger any slowing of the fan but still shut down, also never attempted restart :confused:
 
theoldsalt said:
If the thermostat is internal does that mean it cannot be adjusted or do you have to crawl into the cockpit locker each time you need to adjust it ?
Click to expand...

It means that you control the heater with the rheostat switch (if not recycling the air from the cabin). ie the thermostat is effectively redundant except that it will shut the heater down if the inlet (locker) air gets too warm.
 
A few small air bubbles are normal. I think the plunger action causes some cavitation in the fuel (or something similar). However, you never notice them until something goes wrong and then think it's a fault (been there).

A couple of things come to mind:

1) Is your Eber pump fitted high above the tank?
I don't think that they prime properly if height is too great. Not certain of the figures but seem to remember the pump will push fuel up around 2m but will only suck fuel in from a couple of feet. I think the max. height of pump from bottom of tank might only be 30 inches.

I think the pump is also meant to be mounted at a slight angle upwards to stop air bubbles building up inside. Around 20 degrees sounds about right.

2) Is the smoke very black and has it never had a decoke
Mine failed once because of this. Dealer wanted hundreds to fix and mentioned new combustion chamber etc. Would be better buying a new one and they don't do D3L so need to buy bigger unit. By the time he'd finished the cost was £1,200+.

I went back to the boat and did a decoke myself for nothing. Worked perfectly after that.
Easy enough but complicated to explain. I can try if you think it might be the problem.
 
alahol2 said:
It means that you control the heater with the rheostat switch (if not recycling the air from the cabin). ie the thermostat is effectively redundant except that it will shut the heater down if the inlet (locker) air gets too warm.
Click to expand...

Agreed alahol but i would be unsure if it was safe to draw the heater air (not cumbustion) from the locker the heater is in, if the exhause pipework were to fail you could poison the cabin by blowing in exhaust gasses.
 
Mistroma, thanks, did a decoke (well had it apart and cleaned out getting loads of carbon particles out) yesterday. replaced various parts. if as you say the bubbles are a norm then am in stook. The heater was fitted to boat when purchased. Previous owner stated it works perfectly ??? Pump is at an angle and probably level with pick up pipe (copper pipe from tank, over top of engine to other side of boat) but seems professionaly fitted.
 
I just did a search for D1LC faults and found a web-site I hadn't seen before.

This mentions a "lock out" affecting D1LCs produced between 1990-1998. I hope that your unit isn't one of these.

http://www.letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/Eberspacher_Faults_1.html

I used WD40 to clean the small holes at bottom of spinning cup on D3L. These were completely blocked and that was the problem (not all the carbon inside the chamber). Fuel drips into the cup and forms a film which come out of the end holes as a fine mist.
 
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Mistroma said:
I just did a search for D1LC faults and found a web-site I hadn't seen before.

This mentions a "lock out" affecting D1LCs produced between 1990-1998. I hope that your unit isn't one of these.

http://www.letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/Eberspacher_Faults_1.html

I used WD40 to clean the small holes at bottom of spinning cup on D3L. These were completely blocked and that was the problem (not all the carbon inside the chamber). Fuel drips into the cup and forms a film which come out of the end holes as a fine mist.
Click to expand...

Not sure of the date on mine but not locked out and had plenty of starts after shutting down. no spinning cup on dl1cc but sprayed all connections with contact cleaner.
 
Firstly, bubbles are not normal and should not be there, the amount of fuel pumped is so small that even a small amount of air will affect the burn and enough of them will result in a non start or overheat. If the correct fuel line bore and tank pick up are used throughout and it is not pulling in air downstream of the pump air simply should not be present except during the first "bleeding" so correct that first. After that check for a faulty thermistor, either the one that controls the burn in tandem with the rheostat or the overheat one, they are both easy to check with a decent multimeter and the manual gives the values you should expect. My rationalle for removing the air first is that if there are enough of them the bubbles are reducing the fuel delivey volume which is causing an over lean burn and exess heat. The pulsing voltage draw means it is going through it's proper cooling cycle (plug pulsing to burn off exess fuel) which reinforces the overheat, or at least it thinks ist's overheating due to a faulty thermistor or rheostat.
 
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Check for collapsed heating duct.
If the blower encounters resistance in the ducting it can't shift the heated air. It then goes in to overheat mode and shuts down.
Try running without the outlet duct connected.
 
thanks David and Talulah, have checked with multimeter and all values match those in manual. Also, according to information at this link: http://www.letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/Eberspacher_Faults_1.html a few small bubbles are common.
Have run with hoses off (except exhaust) and nothing changes. On reflection I think maybe the exhaust could be restricted. It has a silencer in the run. On start up all goes well, but the odd thing is I don't recall a significant change in the blower speed even if the rheostat is turned from 4 to 1. There is white smoke drifting at the end of the exhaust which disappears after start up and then reappears on shut down process, but I suppose if the exhaust is partially blocked then there will be insufficient flow across the unit and trigger a overheat shutdown fairly quickly. There was a lot of carbon cr*p came out of the exhaust outlet when I was dismantling it, and, as she had been on the hard for a year before I bought her I suppose the silencer could be the problem. Your thoughts ???
First thing next visit is to disconnect silencer and run up and see. :)
 
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