Water Heater - Glow Plug Coolant Heater.

[jj9]

My Berlingo has one of these coolant heaters and as the weather is now colder I wondered if anyone knows anything about the operation of the device?

If you haven't seen one it looks like this :
(Click the image for larger view)

   

It's located just above the gearbox, below and to the left of the battery.
It is fitted in line to the coolant pipe that comes from the engine block and goes into the heater matrix at the bulk head. The heater has 4 glow plugs of some sort fitted to it and these are to heat the coolant going into the heater matrix so you can get heat into the cabin of the vehicle soon after starting from cold. 

Does anyone have any info on the device?


Thanks.

[Adam Lees]

My 2005 2.0 HDi also has one fitted but checking any of the 4 plugs I don't seem to be getting any current to them with ignition so I too am anxious to learn more about its operation and location of relays etc. There is no mention of it at all in my owners handbook and apart from your post and seeing units for sale on eBay there seems to be no information about these at all. My commute is around 35mins depending on traffic and the heater is only barely warm by my arrival. Temp is saying just over 70 and perhaps with approx 10 mins extra driving the engine reaches 90 and the heater appears to work correctly. It would be nice if I could at least get hot air after 20 mins but if these four plugs are pumping heat directly into the heater hose I would like to think the air would be mildly warm after only a few minutes running. Thanks to anyone who can help.

[Top drive]

adam - where are you driving oblast siberia ?

35 minutes of driving should have your engine well up to temperature. heck after 35 mins my whole van would be at 90 degrees never mind the engine and i live in aberdeen scotland.... even my 1987 land rover gets up to temp quicker than 35 minutes. Im usually getting 70 deg after about 3 miles as i see it rising when i get to the village 30 sign. and its at 80 before i leave the village - the village is quite long though but at 35 minutes to 70 somethings up.

check your thermostat. i had this recently where i could only get it above 70 sat in traffic on the motorway it would sit at 60. the top half of the dual seal thermostat seal had come off and jammed it partially open so the rad was never closing off.

[Adam Lees]

Thanks for the reply I could test the thermostat maybe I'm exaggerating a bit I'll check again tomorrow but certainly heater is only at a decent temp like 5 minutes from work or from home on the way back.

I am interested to find out more about the heater plugs and when they should come in I assumed they would help to warm up the cooling system and hence give me warm air a lot quicker than I am now. Unless like the glowplugs only operate in sub zero conditions.

I'll keep investigating and see what I can find.

[cancunia]

I was wondering if these are also intended to help heat the engine block? Seems to be a popular item in Russia / Poland & if you search for the Part 6462 T7 there are quite a few pictures & links but nothing really conclusive. It's an expensive part new but £15 on fleabay.

This is what it looks like inside.

[ghost123uk]

Watching this with interest

[polar]

Yes they are for helping heat the engine - diesels are very fuel efficient and one of the reasons is very good thermal efficiency due to less energy being lost to the coolant than a petrol.

This means they take longer to warm up the coolant and produce the correct/efficient running temperature for the engine. The cool heater for the first few miles is due to this, however in later years this has become a problem due to more stringent emission regs. Some diesels are worse than others E.G. 2004/5 Mondeos will not get up to temperature unless they hit 40mph +.

A way round this is to add a coolant heater that are controlled by the ecu they help the engine warm up quicker n the winter thus helping emissions.

They are similar to a glow plug and thus wear the same so need replacing from time to time. I have seen the blocks they fit into crack so on the request of the owner i have bypassed them and made the wiring safe - the owners always say they can tell no difference with MPG or the the vehicle warming up quicker.

[cancunia]

Yeah, it's probably most effective when it's around double figures below freezing. We don't use block or oil heaters too much in the UK, but I can imagine this being useful in colder climes. Those 4 glow plugs look like they'll draw a lot of power and so may only come on when it's really cold.
If anyone has one and wants to see when it's active, I suppose a 12v bulb wired to earth and one of the glow plug terminals would be an easy test, it could be wired into the cabin somewhere?

[Johny555]

Block the rad off a bit.had to do that every winter on my old combo van.temp gauge hardly moved from cold in the winter

[jj9]

I understand the point made about cold engines and emissions.

The coolant heater would be a help in heating the engine up that little bit quicker, but as the coolant passing through it is routed through the heater matrix before it reaches the engine surely any heat will be absorbed by the heater matrix and therefore not reach the engine.

I'm interested in under what circumstances the heater operates, you would assume that if the ECU is putting out a signal to tell the engine glow plugs to come on (3 minute post heat cycle) that it would be classed as cold enough to put the coolant heater on?

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