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Fiat heater takes forever to warm up....


Guest JudgeMental

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JudgeMental - 2013-02-14 3:09 PM

 

Robin..just had a look at my doors (twice to make sure) and there are no vents to tape up. are you talking about earlier vans.

 

Have a look inside the door pockets - you could remove them to seal the vents or just stuff some foam or a towel down there for the winter.

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I bought a ceramic heater for the wife's car.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150W-12V-DC-2-IN-1-CERAMIC-CAR-HEATER-HOT-COOL-DEMISTING-WINDSCREEN-DEFROSTER-/220877701463

 

You can get them in various power ratings, just search for ceramic car heaters.

 

Ours is 150W which kept blowing the fuse to the cigar socket, a bit of rewiring required.

You should be OK on the Fiat as I believe the accessory socket is rated at 1.5A.

 

I am beginning to wonder if I have a fault on my X/250. The heater blows out hot air after about 1 mile. Although with 7 metres of space behind the cab it takes about 2 months to reach ambient temperature.

 

The vehicle is on the Maxi Chassis, I can't image that the heater would be any different from the standard chassis. Or is it?

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Guest JudgeMental
Tracker - 2013-02-14 3:21 PM

 

JudgeMental - 2013-02-14 3:09 PM

 

Robin..just had a look at my doors (twice to make sure) and there are no vents to tape up. are you talking about earlier vans.

 

Have a look inside the door pockets - you could remove them to seal the vents or just stuff some foam or a towel down there for the winter.

 

Ah!..Yes, some small grills there....Ta.

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JudgeMental - 2013-02-14 3:09 PM

 

Robin..just had a look at my doors (twice to make sure) and there are no vents to tape up. are you talking about earlier vans.

 

 

I was referring to the X240 (previous series) which Jeremy has.

 

Not sure whether the ventilation in the doors made it over into the X250.

 

The vents on the X240 are on the trailing edge of the door that you can only see with the door open (below the physical lock, not the handle).

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Ours isn't any better - how difficult would it be do you think to have a heat exchanger fitted so that the heat from the engine can be used to warm the rear when on the move - we had one on our Rapido 709F many years ago but not seen them on any vans since.
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Mel B - 2013-02-15 4:15 PM

 

Ours isn't any better - how difficult would it be do you think to have a heat exchanger fitted so that the heat from the engine can be used to warm the rear when on the move - we had one on our Rapido 709F many years ago but not seen them on any vans since.

 

Probably less horrendously expensive and easier to fit an Eberspacher or Webasto diesel heater?

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Mel B - 2013-02-15 4:15 PM

- how difficult would it be do you think to have a heat exchanger fitted so that the heat from the engine can be used to warm the rear when on the move...

 

Mel,

 

I think you may find that the root of the problem is that the engine is not producing enough heat for the cab heater to work efficiently so just adding another heat exchanger will only make matters worse :-(

 

The idea of an Eberspacher or Webasto as an auxiliary heater is that the engine is warmed up quicker AND there is surplus heat for the cab heater to work efficiently.

 

For info our Eber is rated at 5 kW and can produce heat from the cab heater in a matter of minutes without even having to pull off the drive :-D

 

Keith.

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Guest 1footinthegrave

I think this is just an issue with most diesel engined cars / vans. Our 2.8 Jtd takes around 10 miles to get warm and can be longer in severe temperatures I've found,and we had a Toyota Avensis diesel that had an auxiliary heater fitted from new which was in the engine bay to overcome this slow warm up period with diesel I guess, which was fine, but for other reasons dumped that and gone back to petrol, hot heater within 1 mile.

 

Also I'm guessing commercial vans are not designed to do the local shopping run in any event Eddie, so nothing wrong, :-(

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1footinthegrave - 2013-02-17 1:05 PM

 

JudgeMental - 2013-02-17 11:39 AM

 

thermal long johns.......

 

Yes best stay away from ladies tights, no fly hole. :D

 

Could use stockings intead ...but maybe that wouldn't have the 'required' effect on the Judge though! :$ :D

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I am not sure about the Judges Fiat but a number of modern engines have more than one thermostat.

 

Initially with a cold engine the head stat is closed so there is no coolant flow in the head. The idea being to get the combustion chamber up to running temperature as fast as possible to reduce emissions. Once the head is warm its stat opens and allows circulation to open to the cylinder block and when the whole motor is up to temperature the main stat opens to allow circulation through the radiator. The position of the main stat in the cooling system varies, some are at the top of the radiator but others are at the bottom. The cabin heater water take off is normally from the head so the heater should come into operation reasonably quickly.

 

As I understand it the EGR ( Exhhaust Gas recirculation) sytem is designed to reduce NOX emmissions caused by high temperatures in the combustion chamber by diluting the oxygen in incoming air with exhaust gas. That being the case I would only expect the EGR only come into operation after the engine is up to running temperature.

 

No doubt Euroserve will advise if I have the wrong end of the stick.

 

 

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Guest JudgeMental

I guess the answerer is that engines are so efficient these days that they dont heat up enough on short journeys to provide adequate heat...as vans primarily designed as a work vehicle I guess this not really surprising.

 

I dont feel any draughts in my 2011 van (build date Nov 2010) to be honest. and on a long run like last year down to Spain where it was snowing at times we did not notice a problem. It is only on short local journeys as I use the van as a second car.....

 

At least I now know the van has nothing wrong with it.... :-D

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