TheSamba.com :: View topic - what to do in 19 F and ice inside the car

Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:50 pm

I have a T4 412 1973
I live in eastern Oregon and this has been a very cold winter my breath frozes over the glass on the inside of the car and no ice out side
this is most unconfortable and dangerous
what can I do cheap and easy
Thank you

Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:15 pm

You shouldn't be having this problem if your gas heater is working 100%. It usually takes a little doing to figure these things out, but it can be done. Make sure everything else is in working order, that all the flexible ducts are there and in good shape and that there are no mouse nest inside of them. Your heater diversion valves need to open completely to get good air too, crawl underneath and see what actually happens when you move your heat lever.

If your gas heater is hopeless then finding a set of 72-74 bus heat exchangers should give you better heat. The 411/412 heat exchangers don't have fins inside so do little without the gas heater. Never tried changing them out myself but I would think that it would be close to a bolt on especially if you get all the matching bus tin.

Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:55 am

there are 2 fans nither of them is currently working
not conected right or somthing else
but the hoses that go to them they are 2-3 in in diameter
where can I find them? or what can I use istead?

Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:40 am

tjjeppesen wrote: there are 2 fans nither of them is currently working
not conected right or somthing else
but the hoses that go to them they are 2-3 in in diameter
where can I find them? or what can I use istead?

The fan you need to worry about is mounted in the engine compartment. It has two hoses attached one going to each heater box. With a little effort I was able to get a couple of pieces of plastic shop-vac hose to work on mine. This fan should come on when the heat lever is in the hot position. If these hoses are missing you will get very little flow though the heater boxes and gas heater. There are also hoses underneath between the heater boxes and the gas heater these hoses have to be able to handle some heat so they need to be the metal cardboard type. I have never had to replace mine but you may be able to get generic ones from your FLAPS. There are also two accordian tubes between the gas heater and the channels in the body. These may be a T4 only part, but I would think that bus accordian tubes could be made to work.

You need to check that all the fuses for your gas heater are good and that the timer switch has not kicked. On a sedan the gas heater relays and fuses are in the left side of the engine compartment while on the wagon they are under or next to the rear seat.

Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:14 pm

Kind of late, but have you thought of going to a truck stop travel store and get a small electric defroster that plugs into the cigarrete lighter, till you can get the original working. Also, a plug in, clip-on fan will be a help at keeping the moisture off the inside of the glass. Keep your windshield scraper handy! Good Luck!

Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:43 am

Just binned the small little heat boxes from my 412 in favour of some early Type 2 heat exchangers.

They a took a bit of fettling to fit but they are on and I now get proper heat from the exhaust, just like on our bug.

Mind you in the UK we don't quite reach the extreme weather you guys experience :shock:

Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:24 pm

wshawn wrote: Just binned the small little heat boxes from my 412 in favour of some early Type 2 heat exchangers.

They a took a bit of fettling to fit but they are on and I now get proper heat from the exhaust, just like on our bug.

Mind you in the UK we don't quite reach the extreme weather you guys experience :shock:

I am going to do this to my 411 soon. My gas heater works, but will trip the flame out timer at now and again equaling very little heat. BY adding bus heaters, I will still be able to use the gas heater for a very quick warm up or suppliment the exhaust heat on the coldest days. Having both should give the best of both worlds.

Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:17 am

Not that I want to hijack this thread, but perhaps one of you might have an idea to help me

My heater starts and works fine (though it smells awful :x ), but it continues to run until the overheating fuse blows, if I don't switch it off for a minute or two once in a while. Thus it appears that the temperature regulating circuit is defective. So my question is:
What is the most likely place to look for an error,
1. The regulator box in the dashboard, or
2. The temperature sensor in the hort air ducting?

Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:45 am

Sorry mate the short answer is I don't know but I have found this info that I intend to work through to try and make mine work properly, hope it is of some use for you.

http://manuals.type4.org/ba4/ch2/ba4_12a.htm

Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:30 am

Can't help you much, but I know that there is a temperature sensor in the burner which sends a signal to the temperature control unit on the dash. You need to locate the wire that sends the signal from the sender to the control unit and see what kind of voltage is on it and how it varies with temperature.

I have two different styles of drawing the the BA4 which I have downloaded in the past. I am pretty sure one set came from Type4.org. I don't remember where I found the other. I have found both to be useful when trouble shooting. My heater was wired wrong, probably from day 1 as it appear to have never been fired. What a bitch to figure out. The unit was full of oil from past engine leaks that had migrated into the burner and blew greasy smoke out the vents once fired up. I ended up running it on full heat with the windows open until it burned itself clean.

One drawing is the layout style that kind of shows where everything is and the other is the current track style that shows you how the relay and stuff actually work to some extent. If you PM me your email address and I will forward them to you.

Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:59 pm

Thanks for helping out. I already have the manual from Type4.org, and I'm fairly used to servicing Eberspächers, as 2 of these are the only source of heating in my Tatra, which I use as daily driver. These (BN4) do however have a different temperature regulating circuit than the 412's BA4.

As indicated above, I'm pretty sure the error is located in either the temperature regulator box or the temperature sensor. I just thought I might save some time locating the culprit, if one of the users here had some experience with this problem. 8)

Ah well, I'm off out to the garage with the multimeter :wink:

I'm not so worried about the smell. It'll probably burn away, once the heater is allowed to run for more than the 5 minutes it takes to blow the overheating fuse!

Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:33 am

Just thought I'd share my experince with the upgrade to type 2 heat exchangers.

They are great, loads of heat from them just needed a slight modification to the outer casing to allow them to fit but well worth it...now the summer is here and hopefullly some dry weather shall try and work out why the eberspacher does not work :lol:

Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:39 pm

T613-4:

Is your auxillary blower fan in the engine compartment fully operational? This has to work in conjuction with the gas heater to blow the heat into the cabin of the car......the gas heater will not do this by itself, and will trip the breaker if the fan is not functioning. Also, the right heater-lever between the seats must be pulled up in order to complete the connection for the fan to come on.

Having said that, the hoses that connect from the fan to the rear of the heat exchangers (through the topside of the cooling tin) must be present and connected. Also, the paper/foil hoses from the front of the heat exchangers up to the gas heater must be intact, with no leaks. Again, if they aren't up to snuff, then it won't get the push of air from the auxillary fan in the engine bay to flow the air/heat through and from the gas heater.

Travis