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An Eberspacher service update .


chubby

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Hello

 

about a month ago i asked for some help with my eber . it hadn t worked for a long time . I received a great deal of help & advice and to day i finally gad the time to concentrate on taking it apart and servicing it and cleaning the tiny filter in the dosing pump .

I ve fitted it back in place & turned it on and it goes for 6 mins before switching off .

After turning on it starts its humming sound , then the pump starts clicking - slowly at first then faster . A little white smoke emerges from it and this is as far as it goes . The pump stops but the unit still hums . 45 second or so later the pump tries again and then after another cycle of pumping the heater switches off .

Can anyone suggest a likely cause ? or perhaps which part need replacing inside .

I now have no fear of this machine , whereas i was petrified of it beforehand but it really is straightforward to service it afterall .

Any suggestions as to the way forward would be great , as it sounds so close to working .

cheers

 

My thanks especially to Bobbybass , NMEA , BSP & Pquinn who very much helped me initially with very sound advice

 

cheers again .

Edited by chubby
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Simple fail to ignite fault, the two tries is normal. Can be bad plug, coked up, poor fuel or as you have had it apart the fuel may need to be primed, take off the fuel inlet to the heater and see if you get spurts in time with the pump tick. Voltage, as long as its above 10.5v will not prevent a start unless other faults or coking are present.

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Hi ,

 

Thanks again . The battery is charged & i ve also tried it running the engine as advised on my earlier threads around a month ago .

As for the glow plug i wouldn t know how to tell if the glowplug is faulty unless there are tell tale signs visually that it has become unusable .

I' m happy to take it back off the bulkhead & open it up again if necessary to check tomorrow .

cheers

 

Edit : Sorry NMEA , i was writing when you posted . I gave it a good cleanout as shown on the youtube service including the two little holes u cannot see on the vid that are mentioned . I also cleaned the little thimble fuel pump filter .

Also , i tried it again about 15 mins ago . Same result but theres a strong smell of diesel - really strong when trying to start . This may be irrelavant but i thought i would mention this ,

cheers

Edited by chubby
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Forgive me if this is telling you to suck eggs, but my 14 year old D7W has a cut out switch that triggers after 3 ignition attempts. This might need to be reset.

 

You'll find it in front of the control box on top of the body & slightly to oneside, it should be a small vertical cylinder with a rubber cap on the top & you press firmly down on the middle of this cap to do the reset, I had to remove mine to properly see the switch to do the reset.

 

Hope it's as simple as that for you, but this IS an Eberspacher we're talking about!

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If the pump still ticks it is not locked out, and the hydronic has no manual reset. Check the plug and flame sensor resistance against the manua'sl specs and also check the voltage at the heater whilst it is trying to start in case the cable or terminals have resistance.

Edited by NMEA
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Just another stupid thought, you do have enough fuel I take it? I once had a failure to light situation that turned out to be lack of fuel, even though I had fuel in my tank. It turns out that my builder had placed the bottom of the fuel pipe for the Eber about half way up my fuel tank so that the Eber ran out of fuel when my tank was barely half empty!

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i tried it again about 15 mins ago . Same result but there's a strong smell of diesel - really strong when trying to start . This may be irrelevant but i thought i would mention this ,

cheers

Not irrelevant at all, it tells us (or at least should tell us) that there is diesel getting through and not being ignited.

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Thanks for your replies folks

 

ive been flat out last few days and for various reasons had no fone & computer .

ok , a couple of things . I ve filled the header tank with coolant mixture halfway between min & max and assumed it was fine etc . I 'll recheck all the pipework to make sure the coolants filling the system up and theres no airlocks . When i turn the bleed screw at the top coolant comes out so i ve thought that meant the radiator circuit was full of coolant . All 4 rads are currently fully " open " .

 

I think that the bench test may be a good next move but it may take a few days as i think i ll need to buy vehicle radiator hose and some thin tube for the diesel . Then i ll take out a leisure battery to test it .

This may take a few days or so as i ve got some other things to see to aswell but i ll definately post back as soon as i can with results .

Thanks again for your help & patience

 

cheers

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Before removing and bench testing there are a few simple checks which might save time.

Is there plumes of white smoke from the exhaust? If yes, you've got fuel but no ignition.

If no: disconnect the fuel pipe from the outlet side of the fuel pump and see if it spits diesel when the pump is clicking. I had to suck the fuel through to prime the pump.

 

Next step would be to look at the glow plug and flame sensor.

I've recently bought an old model D5W, on that you can remove the glowplug from the housing, re-attach the wires to the glow plug and by putting your hand near (but not on) the element, feel whether it is getting hot or not, or preferably use an infra red thermometer if you have one. Mine didn't visibly glow when tested like this, but the glow plug got hot and it did fire up once the fuel was through. Is the glow plug as accessible on the newer models?

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Before removing and bench testing there are a few simple checks which might save time.

Is there plumes of white smoke from the exhaust? If yes, you've got fuel but no ignition.

If no: disconnect the fuel pipe from the outlet side of the fuel pump and see if it spits diesel when the pump is clicking. I had to suck the fuel through to prime the pump.

 

Next step would be to look at the glow plug and flame sensor.

I've recently bought an old model D5W, on that you can remove the glowplug from the housing, re-attach the wires to the glow plug and by putting your hand near (but not on) the element, feel whether it is getting hot or not, or preferably use an infra red thermometer if you have one. Mine didn't visibly glow when tested like this, but the glow plug got hot and it did fire up once the fuel was through. Is the glow plug as accessible on the newer models?

Easiest thing to get to on mine
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Cheers folks ,

 

i m hoping to look at this eber in the next day or two and so i ll look to clean the gauze around the glow plug thoroughly and have a look at the plug itself . White smoke came out the exhaust when let tried but not much

cheers

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White smoke is good news in a way, it indicates that fuel is present but being incompletely combusted, the glowplug and screen are the usual suspects in such cases, that and a good general decoke.

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White smoke is good news in a way, it indicates that fuel is present but being incompletely combusted, the glowplug and screen are the usual suspects in such cases, that and a good general decoke.

 

Really? I thought white smoke was a sign of moisture in the combustion gases & I guess its either a build up of condensation or water in the fuel. In which case, & certainly in the latter, not a good thing at all I'd have thought.

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Really? I thought white smoke was a sign of moisture in the combustion gases & I guess its either a build up of condensation or water in the fuel. In which case, & certainly in the latter, not a good thing at all I'd have thought.

No, that would be steam, white smoke is incomplete combustion, not unusual on start up of poorly serviced heaters but clears once the flame has established, the incomplete combustion is why in this case the heater will not continue running once the flame sensor has reported no flame and it shuts down.

Edited by NMEA
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The glow plug is obviously passing the internal test to get as far as white smoke. If there was an airlock in it the water pump would make an obviously 'wierd' noise while trying to pump. There's a little bleed screw in the middle top of the unit so airlocks are easily solved, undo that a bit and make sure coolant dribbles out.

Never had a problem with diesel airlock as the pump will get past it after 1 or 2 tries.

 

I've a bad feeling you will have to take it apart again to check the gauze in the diesel feed. Follow the diesel to the combustion chamber, just before it enters the chamber there's a tiny gauze which I suspect is still all coked up, its dark in there so hard to see clearly. If you cant see metal gauze it's probably blocked up with coke.

Also noteworthy is after several failed startups you will get white smoke by the bucket load while it clears the unburnt fuel from the failures before.

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Thanks for this folks ,

 

I ' m planning to have a crack at this eber asap . Right now i ' ve got a somewhat pressing toilet problem that i m looking into . If / when i get this sorted my next priority will be this eber .

I m ok with taking it all apart again to get to the gauze you mention but have a question .

Will i need to buy new gaskets despite it not firing up and only going thru half a dozen attempts ? If so no problem and i ll get them ordered .

Right - now back to my grim toilet prob ,

cheers guys

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Thanks for this folks ,

I m ok with taking it all apart again to get to the gauze you mention but have a question .empts ? If so no problem and i ll get them ordered .

Almost certainly not. I've had my probs with Ebersplutters in the past and the gaskets are not one of them.

From the sound of it the diagnosis of a blocked gauze is a likely contender. Also check out the tiny holes that link that little pocket to the main combustion chamber.

Bob

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Haha I'm probably not the right person to ask about gaskets, I reused mine 4 times before replacing.
It all depends on how they come off really, if youre careful you'll be fine but always have anew set just incase.

Re little holes mentioned above, spot on! They can also be so well coked you'd not know they were there.
Try and be gentle with the gauze as I ripped mine (still works fine though) its there for reason though so try and leave it intact.

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