29-09-2011, 05:02 PM
My friend has a 2002 2L HDI Mulitspace (Canbus wiring).
After a two week break, he started the car and drove a few miles and then got a nasty hot electrical smell.
Looking under the bonnet, the alternator was red hot and smoking heavily. The alternator was indeed dead (stator windings cooked) and was replaced with a pukka Valeo 150 amp unit.
The 8 year old battery, though able to start the car reliably, was also replaced with a new one.
But the hot alternator problem remained so he checked around with a meter and found that the new alt was continuously pumping out 80A even once the car was warm with no other loads on.
Looking around he spotted a unit in the heater matrix hose fed by massive cables and found that it was live all the time, drawing a constant load of about 70amps. (RH end of the engine – looking at it – under the intake ducting, below and behind the battery tray). There is no mention of this unit in the Haynes manual or in the wiring diagram.
He’s now disconnected it, the heavy alternator load has gone (6amps now after a few minutes at tickover) and the car seems to be fine. The heater still works as it did originally.
He’s bought a second-hand one off Ebay – called a heater valve – pictured here (from a 2.0HDi Xantia).
Its clearly not a “valve” but appears to be a cluster of glowplugs. We can only assume this a “quick de-frost” device and that the control circuit or relay for this has gone U/S. Presumably it should switch off once the coolant is warm. The vehicle is still running perfectly with this part disconnected.
We hope this helps some else.
After a two week break, he started the car and drove a few miles and then got a nasty hot electrical smell.
Looking under the bonnet, the alternator was red hot and smoking heavily. The alternator was indeed dead (stator windings cooked) and was replaced with a pukka Valeo 150 amp unit.
The 8 year old battery, though able to start the car reliably, was also replaced with a new one.
But the hot alternator problem remained so he checked around with a meter and found that the new alt was continuously pumping out 80A even once the car was warm with no other loads on.
Looking around he spotted a unit in the heater matrix hose fed by massive cables and found that it was live all the time, drawing a constant load of about 70amps. (RH end of the engine – looking at it – under the intake ducting, below and behind the battery tray). There is no mention of this unit in the Haynes manual or in the wiring diagram.
He’s now disconnected it, the heavy alternator load has gone (6amps now after a few minutes at tickover) and the car seems to be fine. The heater still works as it did originally.
He’s bought a second-hand one off Ebay – called a heater valve – pictured here (from a 2.0HDi Xantia).
Its clearly not a “valve” but appears to be a cluster of glowplugs. We can only assume this a “quick de-frost” device and that the control circuit or relay for this has gone U/S. Presumably it should switch off once the coolant is warm. The vehicle is still running perfectly with this part disconnected.
We hope this helps some else.
'98 D 800 van 
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