david lloyd

Mike, I’m not sure exactly where the Eberspacher ECU is located but the second guy who did ours had his laptop plugged in somewhere under the vehicle near the heater itself - think there must be a box or junction. He did say the reading was just over 8v despite there being +12.5v available at the leisure battery and that just isn’t enough to start the heater in diesel mode. Hope you find someone willing and capable. David

It’s quite disheartening Mike - the first Eberspacher repairer we went to with this problem diagnosed low voltage and sold me a pair of new leisure batteries. Next trip out the fault was still there. As I mentioned earlier we found another Eberspacher repairer near where we were staying and this guy proved to be more thorough. He used a laptop to interrogate the heaters ECU for an error code which came up as low 12v feed. Further investigation revealed the poor six way connector next to the leisure batteries and once this was removed and the wiring to the Combitronic connected direct to the batteries all was fine and had remained so. They may very well be correct saying the unit itself is too old to repair but my example shows the fault was nothing to do with the unit. The first Eberspacher agent was a large auto electrician’s but the second traded mostly on regassing air conditioning - just goes to show some people are not onlY more capable but are also more interested in solving a customers problem. David

They sound similar to the readings on mine with just the solar panel feeding them. My starter will go down to 12.5v as it doesn’t automatically get any of solar feed but I can switch the panel between starter or leisure when on EHU so am able to keep all topped up. David

“the policy is loaded” seems a particularly apt phrase when it comes to insurance! David

Me too Keith. I was shocked - my insurers, Caravan Guard, increased the premium by £69 then wanted £90 for European cover (which was always included prior to Brexit) and another £70 for European breakdown. After a search C&MC came in with best price at £80 cheaper than CG including European cover. Their breakdown cover is quite expensive though so, as I was renewing my wife’s car breakdown insurance (£19) with Britannia Rescue, I asked for a quote for European cover on the motorhome. The nice lady advised that if I change my policy to cover both of us travelling in any vehicle it would come to £37! And cover the motorhome in Europe. Bargain. Talking about timing though, Martin Lewis advises not to wait until renewal time to get quotes as the nearer the date the more it increases. This was born out with my C&MC website quote which had risen by £30 just a couple of days later when I went to take it out. But their website states quotes are valid for 30 days so a call to them confirmed they would do it for the original Price quoted. David

Insurers are always going to win aren’t they? Some policies undertake to pay out for the full value if a replacement if written off in the first year or maybe two but, after that, their normal T&C’s usually only undertake to pay market value! David

Your circumstances raise a particular question. We have had (new) vehicles in the past that the insurers have insisted were fitted with tracker systems before they would provide cover. I was led to believe this requirement was usually based on the value of the vehicle - in my case it was over their threshold of £70,000 - I did say at the time we’ll adjust the value to £69,950 but they said that as I had already declared it to be the higher figure that would have to be the sum insured. Our 2006 Pioneer Renoir does not (and did not need to have) a tracker fitted for insurance purposes but, if we still had the Hymer, I wonder at what point the monitored tracker system would no longer be a requirement as the value fell over the years. Simply put, Robinhood, if you are only fitting it as a requirement for insurance purposes is that still the case six years on? David

And also well done for persevering not many do that either but glad it has worked out well for you. David

Having recently experienced an unnecessary activation of my autonomous emergency braking system on my MG4 EV it’s one thing I would definitely ditch. With a car following (too close it has to be said) I consider it more dangerous than my own intuition of when to brake in an emergency. Others are correct though. When it comes to resale most of the goodies in the pack would help seal the deal at a better price. David

As Derek says, interesting MoT history of this is the same motorhome. I have never thought about doing such a check but it does give an interesting insight. Failed in 2013, 2017 and 2023. Not particularly bad in itself but, in that time span (2013 - 2024) it had only done 5000 miles and doesn’t seem to have been in for MOT between July 2019 and August 2023 so been stood a while. David

Just for more info Mike, there was a thread on here by Kevin915 dated 7 April 2023 (sorry, not sure how to post link but if you use the search facility using kevin915 you will find it) in which he had trouble getting his water to heat on a 2005 Autocruise Starburst and this did indeed turn out to be the black Duco thermostatic valve. He was looking for a replacement but there was no update to say how he got on. David

Mike, although you can select either heating, hot water or both using the buttons for heating and water at the top of your panel the temp selected will be the same for both. This is set using the up/down arrows when you have any of the heating modes on your display. We have not found this to be a problem as the actual temp of the water at the tap can be regulated by using the mixer facility - even on the shower head. As you say, there is a thermostatic control on the hot water tank but I believe this works in the same way - that is, whatever it is set at that is the same for heating or water. So, set the thermostat on the tank at the temp you would like the hot water at (bearing in mind you can use the mixer taps to regulated how hot it is at the sink or shower) then use the temp setting on the control panel to set the heating temp inside the van. Ours is not particularly accurate and we find that if the panel is set at 26c for the heating the blower usually switches off with the van at a comfortable 18c - you just need to experiment till you find what suits you. I think that if you set the water temp too low on the tank thermostat it just takes longer for the heating to get up to temp inside the van. It’s probably also worth mentioning that our system has had what looks like a domestic (Honeywell) thermostat fitted at some time. Not sure why but it may be that the black Duco knob I think you are referring to either stopped functioning or does not operate well. The replacement has easy to read settings - currently at 60c as you will see in the picture. Hope all this helps. David

You might also try O’Leary Motorhomes near Beverley East Yorkshire who deal with caravan/motorhome spare. They usually purchase surplus stock from converters when models are superseded. There is also Magnum Motorhomes based in Lincolnshire but they deal more with Autotrail parts and generic fittings. David

Designers eh? I was going to suggest the easiest resolution may be to tee off the black warm air duct and fix this to a (flapped) outlet at or near the base of the offside sofa facing into the aisle. Certainly this is the most oft seen place for a heater outlet on this layout. But, I now see that the bed base is constructed in such a way that the entire front lifts up with the bed base to access inside the locker beneath - which makes it easier to access whatever is in the locker but the traditional drop down flap would have allowed a heater outlet to one side of it. David

Just to clarify Mike, as far as I know the 240v works like a domestic water cylinder element - there is a short element inside the calorifier - but this does rely on signals from the 12v control panel to switch it on/off. If there is a voltage drop to the control panel (and the constant recycling of the panel on start up was a symptom I had) then this could be the reason for it not operating on 240v. Just one other point, my 240v side is wired into a fused spur near the Eberspacher unit under the bed - if yours is it may also be worth checking that fuse. Hope you get sorted. David