Webasto supplementary heater

It just burns diesel in a combustion chamber and uses an electric pump to circulate and heat coolant.

John

Seems a long winded way to do it - they also make ones which heat the air direct. Used on ambulances, etc.

It saves on ducting & lets you preheat the engine. Much easier & cheaper as an option/retrofit.

It could be a heater unit that fits into the top hose and plugs into the mains over night in cold weather to aid cold starting, when I used to work for a company building ambulances we used to regularly fit these units, the "cab heater" type we fitted just used to heat air not the water. Trevor Smith

Not the Citroen/Peugeot ones. (well not on my old one).

They rely on the engine driven water pump to circulate the water which means that without modification, they can't be used for engine pre-heating. I looked into adding an electric water pump but this provoked a lot of sucking of teeth amongst the after-market fitters as they weren't at all sure how they'd tie things in with the existing control electrics fitted to the Citroen. It was also going to cost a lot of money. I gave up in the end.

I believe that they're there more for emission control than anything else. It reduced the engine warm-up time. The efficiency of the diesel engine doesn't really come into it. A diesel engine may extract more energy from the fuel but it's still producing 120 bhps worth (or thereabouts) of heat and power.

Tim

Thanks. I feel sure your comment about emission control reflects Peugeot's solution to an emission standards problem. This link shows Webasto's interpretation.

Just rang Webasto but the man with the info was on his lunch and is going to ring back.

Justin

The Saab 9-3 2.2TiD also has a diesel heater as standard. I obtained a kit from Saab to enable it to be used as a preheater, which consisted of a pair of hoses and electric pump to replace a single hose run, and a connection into the car computer. This enabled you to set the diesel heater to start at a certain time and meant the car was nicely defrosted and warm inside (it also switched on the interior heater) It was a superb feature. If you can fit a remote to your Peugeot all the better. I obtained the bits from a Swedish contact so maybe a mail to Peugeot (Sweden) if there is such a thing will help

Darn! Wish I had thought of that! (Too late now, got rid of the car.)

Tim

I had a Webasto preheater fitted onto my Passat when it was new. Highly recommended especially usefull for those frosty nights in winter.

I've got a timer for the unit which I never use as I also have a remote control which when the battery is new will operate the system from about half a mile away. In the winter I can get into a warm defrosted car in as little as ten minutes from pressing the remote control, great for those 5:30 am starts I have.

I spoke to Paul Gofton of Webasto prior to having the system fitted and found him to be most helpfull. I used the following number to contact him (01302) 322232 I can't be sure that this number still is current.

Regards Sadcrab

Webasto did call me back and we had useful conversation. The person who can best help is away in Holland but is going to call on return with all the detail. Seems like a couple of hundred pounds each for extra circulatory pump, control gear and fitting.

Justin