Coolant pre-heater

[Ricky]

I know I was just saying.

[Dum-Dum]

Funnily enough i've had that idea before, not sure it'd bring any net saving though, unless we can make it efficient/low energy enough to run off the car battery.

Thats why I was thinking run it off the mains.

[Poodle]

That's what i'm saying, the small amount it would save in fuel would be offset by the cost of running it off the mains, therefore no benefit and no point imo.

[DeeTurbo]

Oh yeah, where were you going to install it?

I was thinking of have the second straight after the original unit.

That's what i'm saying, the small amount it would save in fuel would be offset by the cost of running it off the mains, therefore no benefit and no point imo.

The benefit would be comfort and frost might have defrosted on the colder days.

[Dum-Dum]

That's what i'm saying, the small amount it would save in fuel would be offset by the cost of running it off the mains, therefore no benefit and no point imo.

Could probably work out the usage. Cant be more than a kw/hour it draws and the time me and you get up it'll be white meter still.

[Poodle]

Fair enough, might find my turbo will block that option, will have to see. Pfffft, comfort can take a hike.

Yeah fair point. Still be a bit of a ballache, might just wait and see how you get on with it lol. :p

[kris_taylor1988]

Did anyone figuare out what plugs it uses in the end or where to get them from?

[Tom]

Didnt Tom put a link on the first page??

[Toms306]

I did but it seems they've changed the part number.

[Poodle]

Exactly that, need to get someone with a spare to check theirs.

[Tom]

Well those french bastards!

[Pipps]

So if I'm not getting 'instant' heat from a brand new matrix, then is it likely to be worth replacing the coolant glow plugs?

[mcglynn]

should there be instant heat? :O

[Poodle]

You should have warm air within a minute of running, if you haven't got it and you want it then replacing those plugs is the only way to get it lol.

[mcglynn]

BUT they're expensive aren't they? :/

[Poodle]

Probably lol, they're just glowplugs though. Although not the same ones as you get in the engine annoyingly.

[Pipps]

How many of these glow plugs are required?

The Bosch part number 'Bosch 0250202129' on the other thread was helpful.

Are the Beru ones available cheaper?

[Toms306]

There are 4 plugs in the heater.

Not sure if any of those part numbers are correct though unfortunately.

I can't see that they'd heat up enough water quick enough to give cabin heat after just a minute though, don't think I've ever had a car do that lol, maybe 5 minutes...

[Poodle]

As said further up the thread, the part numbers are wrong. Hopefully i'll be able to shed some more light on this soon, but I will update when I have more info.

According to the info Cully found, heating up the cabin quickly is pretty much their sole intended purpose. I know of a couple of hdis with working preheaters and they do get warm air impressively quickly, tbf I didn't time how long it took, but it was about a minute.

[Toms306]

Hmm, fair enough then. I was thinking of this thread this morning, when I was still freezing after about 5 miles!

[Poodle]

Yeah snap, i have no interior and an ally gearknob, not so clever at this time of year.

[Dum-Dum]

TBF with no interior its always going to feel cold but its the roof lining that seems to make the biggest difference to interior temp.

I will probably be looking at fitting a second one of these when I fit my new engine as I seem to of amassed a small stockpile of them.

[Pipps]

Mine took more than one minute to warm up this morning. More like five minutes.

Thanks for confirming that this probably isn't a sign of needing new glow plugs.

[Alan_M]

I 'think' mine work too. Working nights this week, and within a mile or so of leaving work I had luke-warm air coming through the vents. Certainly, hot within a 5 miles.

I googled those numbers and could only find the Bosch ones.

[Pipps]

Out of interest, should there be any difference in the speed of receiving heat, depending on whether you depress your air-con button or not?

[Poodle]

It'll take a few minutes to get up to full operating temperature, but if the coolant preheater is working you should have some warm air within a minute or so - not hot, but warm enough to clear the screen.

I seem to remember Cully also mentioned something about the normal glowplugs pulsing during warm-up to help heat the engine, possibly only when it's below freezing, i don't quite remember.

I've heard a about aircon helping produce warm air earlier, but i don't know how accurate that is nor can i work out how it would work... Something i see a lot on newer cars is a heatshield about the exhaust manifold with a draw pipe that feeds into the in-car heater, produces hot air in less than a minute and shouldn't be too hard to replicate...

[Dum-Dum]

The air con button wont do alot (especially on a 15 year old 306) but the recirculate button should help as it'll draw the slightly warmer air thats already in the cabin as opposed to the cold air from outside so will meaing your heating already warmed air compared to the freezing stuff from outside and also this should help warm the engine coolant warm up faster as you wont be blasting the matrix with freezing air.

That said I don't think it will make that much of a difference.

[Pipps]

Good point mate, cheers!

[DeeTurbo]

But if you hit your recirculate button and your aircon doesn't work you're likely to mist up the windows.

I was looking at the 406 heater on service box and they don't have the preheater like ours. It looks like they have a electric heater element that slots into the main unit.

---

Number 8 on drawing

[Dum-Dum]

But if you hit your recirculate button and your aircon doesn't work you're likely to mist up the windows.

Sorry how?

The recirculate flap only changes where it draws air from and its relative temperature (or smell)