Eberspacher D5WSC not working

[Sandra F]

When we bought our 4 year-old boat last summer, the radiator heating worked OK on a brief check, but hasn't been used since, preferring the log stove.

 

Now,though, on a chilly morning SWMBO wants just a touch of warmth first thing, and although when switched on there is an initial whirr, nothing else happens.

 

The manuals indicate the glow plug may need cleaning - is this something the averagely practical man can do? If so, how do I get at it, and what do I do with it?

 

Or is this best left to a professional?

 

Help appreciated.

 

Barry F

[WotEver]

Clicky

 

Tony

[Mrs Humdinger]

I'm a girl, so bear with me!!

 

The glow plugs are, as I understand it, quite easy to change - according to OH anyway. When the system starts up, it goes through a variety of checks - is there fuel, water, air, etc, etc (although not necessarily in that order). The glow plug could be knackered, the chamber could be coked up, could be a whole number of things. Ours didn't work for nearly 6 weeks in the winter, despite the efforts of 3 separate engineers who couldn't fix it. It would come on, fire up and start working, then immediately turn itself off again. Turned out the air intake pipe had touched against the hot exhaust and the pipe had melted closed. We cut the melted bit off, and up it went.

 

There's a forum here with some useful links - http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138548

 

Best of Luck

[gazznhelz]

do you have the 7 day timer option with that heater? if so it can read the fault codes the heater stores, and lead you to the problem area.

 

there are so many checks an eberspacher does before it fires up, working without the fault codes can be an expensive experiance, and all you can really do is change random parts hoping it's the one.

 

has the heater failed to start before? it has a certian number of failed start attempts then it locks out, sounds silly but it's so it dosent flatten the battery trying to start when it's out of fuel, you need to then re-set the heater to allow anotehr number of start attempts, can be reset with the 7 day timer,

[Bobbybass]

Hi...

 

How long does it whir before shutting down...?

It checks the glow plug in the first ten seconds and will immediatly close down if it is open circuit.

THere is a glow plug fuse in the control box...fiddly to get at.....its about 16 amp...

 

If it runs for...25-30 seconds it is likely to be something else...there is a flow chart in the manual that gives an idea of timings and problems.

Can you hear the fuel pump start to tick ?

The system checks basic electrics etc...and only starts the fuel pump if all circuits are intact and blower motor is running

I would check that nobody has shut off the fuel tap....sounds stupid..but I have had that one.

 

I have the 7 day timer....but it doesn't give fault codes..and doesn't need resetting for faults...(which I'm glad of)

 

Hope my five penneth helps.

 

Bob

[Pretty Funked Up]

I'm pretty sure the glow pin is the first thing it checks, so if you get a whirrrrrrr then its unlikely to be the glow pin.

start it up with engine runnnig to check/rule out low voltage. If still no luck I'd get on and decoke the thing

[gazznhelz]

it checks everything at start up, current draw of the water pump, combustion blower motor, glow plug, temp switches etc,

 

when my heater had locked out due to running out of fuel, it would do the 'whirr' thing for a few seconds then shut down, i never noticed on the 7 day timer the fault code flashing up which would have told me it had locked out due to too many failed start attempts, as my 7 day timer is in a cupboard, and i use a digital thermostat to controll the heater,

 

but once i sussed what was up, i did a re-set (which is a bit fiddely if you dont have the timer wired up to do re-sets, means jumping a wire between 2 pins, holding a button down then removing the wire or something like that, the eberspacher manuals online tell you how to do it and what all the fault codes are)

 

mines a D5Wc, which means the fuel and water pump are seperate, the Sc bit of the op's heater means the fuel and water pump are located in the main casing, but appart from that they are the same.

 

and the C bit means all the controll stuff is in the main unit, unlike the older models with the extra boxes and relays,

the C models use a glow pin rather than a glow plug, and they pulse the power to it, enabeling it to draw 10 amps instead of 20 amps of the old models,