Diesel auxiliary heater retrofit

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
Old man winter is starting to show his frigid face again and being a rather warm blooded creature I have started another project that hopefully will give me some relief. My morning commute consists of a long downhill stretch and I routinely see my engine temps plummet to the bottom of the scale, and thus the heater output too.

I got a good deal on some Wabasto diesel fired auxiliary heaters that do not specifically fit my car, but after some research I have found that the heater is pretty much the same unit just the mounting is different from car to car, and in some cases the controller.

From what info I have been able to gather, these devices once activated start heating and pumping coolant. Once 40C is achieved a connection is turned on that can be utilized to turn on a fan circuit for instance. Once 70C is achieved it reduces power to 50% or so and if it drops below 60C it ramps back up. Sounds perfect for my downhill commute where the engine doesn't add a single BTU to the coolant.

I intend to hook it up on a remote timer circuit so I can pre-warm my car if I choose from a distance and preferably inside where it is warm.

I have not had one up and test fired yet as these models are the Canbus and likely w-bus fired ones and can not be just fired from a 12v source. They require a w-bus signal (I hope) or if I am unlucky a canbus signal. I have found an analog to w-bus converter and have it on order. I found a site in Hungary that makes them and also if needed a replacement controller for the heater that can make it purely analog, though that controller is much more costly and requires pulling the heater apart to install.

Now that I am reasonably certain that I can fire one somehow, the next step is to try to install the heater in the car. I removed the bumper skin and proceeded to plan where and how it would fit.





The best placement, possibly the only placement is in the left front inner fender area below the air filter. I tried to fit it as is and there was just no combo that worked, so I pulled off the mounting brackets and proceeded to see if either one would work. I finally found a possible fit.





After much fooling around and test fitting the heater to the mount( They did build in pretty good adaptability for reversing directions and sides ) I was able to strike a combination that worked. I had to relocate the water pump and hoses some as well as the muffler, but it finally looks doable.





I intend to add a home built bracket to the left side of the heater as the one it came with is not even close. It should be pretty easy to fabricate one to help stabilize the heater. The more observant people have probably noticed it is not plumb at all as pictured. This is more of an exercise in viability at this point, and i believe it is now. I wonder if that electrical connection with 7 blank spots contain wires that might be useful to me, maybe even the ones intended for the heater? I have found very little useful information on the internet concerning heater fitment on the Jetta. I did find one VW installation manual for a Passat and it showed running harnesses separate for the heater. Still hopeful to find something use able in that connector like power and ground, at least.



That was enough fooling around for one day, my assistant and I have other chores to do today too. I felt it was a success so far though. I am now confidant I can at least mount the thing. I will post more as I progress through the project after the test firing.


My assistant:

 
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Henrick

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Location
Ireland
TDI
Golf VI TDI, 77 kW (CAYC)
I always thought these things are installed on the passenger side (left side of the car).
Seems you installed it in driver's side..

Is this something how it's supposed to be on these cars or is this you who thought that location should be fine for the heater?
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
First we need to define left and right sides of the car. All directions in cars are derived from say sitting on the center of the roof and facing forward. In the US we drive from the left side and Ireland I believe is right hand drive, so passenger and drives sides are reversed. So in this instance I did mount it on the left (drivers side USA).

I did a ton of internet research and did see them mounted on the right side of the car behind the bumper and that is where I had intended it to go. Seems most of the install I saw were Passat or something other than Jetta. I stumbled onto a Russian site that had the VW webasto factory installation manual and they were showing it on the left in a 2011 Jetta. It was a petrol model, but that really makes little difference.

Once I pulled the bumper and looked there was really no place on the right large enough for a heater to sit, but however on the left there was sufficient room. As you can see from my pictures it is largely empty there, unlike the other side. I do believe it was designed to go on the left on this model.

VW does not manufacture the heaters, Webasto does for them as well as many others, so the basic design is similar whether it is installed in a car or boat or truck. Some come with a water pump to circulate coolant and some don't. There is also a hot air heater that doesn't seem to make it into automotive with motorhome exceptions. So in theory the heater can be mounted anywhere at all and adapted, even the trunk, just run hoses and wires as needed. From the many install pictures I have seen it can be mounted in virtually any position, there is no up or down, so to speak. In this case (Jetta) it really works better than my initial thoughts and plans for it on the right side. The hoses are an easier fit, there is room to juggle things around some, battery power is close, etc.

I want to minimize hose length and routing near hot or rotating parts so that looks better too. Heater exhaust is also an important factor. I was trying to get the exhaust pointing straight down but had to settle for horizontal facing rearward. They use a metal flex pipe on the exhaust so I can divert it down and rearward. I would ideally like it to exit under the cabin rather than underhood.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
My Sprinter has one of these, it is incredible. Heat inside of 20 seconds, and it helps warm the engine up much quicker too. Which is especially helpful given its cavernous interior volume.

Shame VAG did not offer these on US-spec models as an option or dealer install accessory, as I think a lot of people would have gladly paid for one.
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
I am hopeful to have the same results. I do want the heat, no doubt, but the benefit of engine heating is also a big factor for me. I see on my commute in the winter 70C achieved getting to my long downhill, and after the descent this morning 55C. It was only in the 30's Fahrenheit (0-5C) today to boot. I like to track engine temps in Centigrade as that makes more sense to me, but outside temp I still prefer Fahrenheit. Colder weather increases the loss. Often at the bottom of the hill the temp gauge on the dash is all the way back to cold.

I would pay extra for such a thing, well actually I am right now in my usual "Gee I would like to have one of those" adventures. I just need to work out a few details.
 
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KidFromAkron

Active member
Joined
Sep 19, 2017
Location
ohio
TDI
2010 jetta
Were all parts included with the heater? How much customization was there? Total cost? Time to install? How is it working thus far?

Can you tell I'm interested?

It gets cold in NE Ohio. As engineered as these cars seem to be I can't believe they wouldn't bring the added heating options that Canada has to the states.
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
No parts were included with the heater, customization still in progress, total cost unknown yet, still working out the install. Wish i knew how well it worked, it is getting cold here.

Wish I would have got the heater months ago so I could be reaping the benefits now. I am still working out the details needed to make it run and currently waiting for parts to arrive from all corners of the world. I guess i started this post a little prematurely in my excitement.

I was hoping to possibly gather a little knowledge and experience from the collective membership to aid in my blind install, but I guess I am one of the pioneers again. Not to worry, once I figure it out I will share all I know to anyone interested.

I too wonder why the heaters weren't offered at least in the northern states. I suspect possibly emission laws were a concern. A fossil fuel burning appliance attached to a modern car in the US would surely have to be EPA approved and regulated.
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
Still working on this project, All I got was the heaters and it has been a crash course on making them work. I have learned a lot, but unfortunately anyone who knows anything seems to be in Russia or Hungary or Britain sometimes. any parts I need have to come as far too, so each setback is 2 weeks waiting for parts.

What I have discovered so far is that with a proper W-bus converter, Purchased from a very knowledgeable fellow in Hungary, I can finally get the heater to respond to commands to start. I thought I could cheat on the fuel pump (dosing pump) by restricting an electric pump's flow way down, but that proved to not work. The dosing pump is a metered output and further controlled by frequency from the controller. A regular pump wont accept the frequency difference and vary output so you just end up flooding the heater and creating smoke and it figures out that something is wrong and goes into cool down.

I have ordered a proper DP42 pump found on ebay europe and it is slowly inching it's way here. I believe once I have a real fuel pump my bench firing will be successful. I did get it to fire once, kind of, by overflooding and running the burn out procedure. It smoked a bit and ran for about thirty seconds before it shut down on overheat. I had the water system just running to a heater core and it took about 20 seconds for it to hit over 80C and shutdown. Next test fire I will probably do as others have and run the hoses into a larger container of water. I am very optimistic about the output however. It was almost too hot to the touch before I could comprehend all the details, though my system was small.

The fellow that sent me the converter also gave me a link to a Wabasto test program that you can run on your laptop and monitor various sensors and actions and errors in the heater. I have learned a lot about that too with his help and and can see exactly what is not working right. I must have tried dozens of test fires to figure it all out, but I was never known for a fast learning curve, especially on something entirely new to me. I am glad to have the knowledge now though.

While waiting for the pump I can now finalize my wiring loom and remote start. I am reluctant to go through all the trouble to mount the heater on the car till I get a successful bench test, but I probably will anyway.

Anyway I thought I would update the post that I obviously started too soon, before I had the details worked out. I will report back after the fuel pump gets here and tested. I do believe that is my final hurdle.
 
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pdq import repair

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Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta


Mounted the heater today and hooked it into the cooling system and powered the pump and bled it through. Notice the controller missing. I have a new one coming that should allow me to be able to fire it up. The original canbus fired controller is on it's way to Hungary for study to see if they can crack it and make a converter for it. That has been the hardest part of the project so far, getting the heater to fire. I originally figured I would need to replace the controller with an analog one, but the guy in Hungary who makes them figured we could fire it by w-bus with no problems. I should have followed my gut on that one and not wasted so much time in trial and error.

Now that I am certain I can make it fire, the next steps happen. The first was getting the cooling system integrated with the heater. Next I need to work on fuel supply. VW draws direct from the tank with a tube that doesn't go all the way to the bottom so you don't burn the tank empty with the heater. Some people mount a separate tank. Having wasted so much time and limited brain power on the heater firing I have not researched the best way for me and will need to purchase parts to do either. I do prefer the tank draw feature for simplicity of fueling and all, but for that to happen I need to scare up the parts. I may play around with drawing fuel from the fuel filter or return line first as that is fairly easy to get to and would require less specific parts. I can definitely see the advantage of the separate tank too for simplicity, but where do you mount it?

Wiring can now be mocked up and installed mostly since I know the firing signal can be analog. I have to decide if I want top use the daily timer that turns it on at a specific time each day, or at the touch of a button, or remote timer assembly.
 
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narongc73

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2005
Location
VA/OH
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
Tap into the tank for fuel. No need for separate tank. You went to too much trouble just to get a webasto working. I bought a new one off the shelf and had no real troubles installing it. :D
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
Tap into the tank for fuel. No need for separate tank. You went to too much trouble just to get a webasto working. I bought a new one off the shelf and had no real troubles installing it. :D

You are right there, I have spent a lot of time doing this, but I don't think it was really wasted time as I have learned a lot. I had considered buying one and installing it but could not find a kit at the time.

The heaters that I purchased are brand new, never been installed or fired, just not for my car but for a VW product. I have confidence that once I get mine working, which will be as soon as the controller arrives, I will then have the ability to convert the other heaters I have into kits of sorts and be able to install them in anything I choose. It seems I never take the easiest path, plus the price I paid for several new heaters is less than the price of the kits I have found, just the learning curve is a little steeper this way.

I admit the biggest mistake I have made is posting this too soon rather than after the project is complete and details worked out. I apologize for that.
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
Update time. I wish I could report that all is working well and have real world data on function and all that, but I don't. This has turned into one of those seemingly neverending projects.

I have learned quite a bit though. i sent a heater to my local Wabasto dealer, a Cummins store in Spokane, to see if they could help me out. They were absolutely fantastic and tried their hardest and didn't charge me a nickle. They told me that they had nothing that could work with it, the heaters i have fall into their marine and recreational division that they do not belong to. They did however give me anumber to Webasto tech.

I talked to a guy at Webasto who knew something. He said the heaters I have are European only and none of them made it to these shores yet. He asked for a running summary from the Webasto diag program I was running to get a clue what was going on. He then in turn contacted Webasto Europe and learned there is no standalone option at this time, though one is in the works.

In the meantime, fearing all of this I ordered an analog controller from my friend in Hungary I have been corresponding with. He sent one out to me. I waited patiently for it to arrive. Other things he sent take a while to clear customs. I asked for a tracking number and he could not provide so he started inquiring where it went. I guess the Hungarian postal system admitted to losing it somewhere and it might show up in a month or so either at his house or mine.

He offered to refund or send me another, I chose the other. so it is still a waiting game. I suspect I will have this thing finally working by summer, but at least I will know how to install as I have had some interested people in my other heaters I have.

Again sorry to pull the trigger on this post before i had it completed and installed and truly thought it would be easier that it proved to be. If I hadn't bought a lot of these heaters I might have given up, but what fun is that?

I also purchased a lot of the dosing pumps from the same place I purchased the heaters so tapping the tank and hookup there is minimized.
 

pdq import repair

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Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
Well no help from the Hugarian postal system and customs I finally received my long awaited control board. My instinct was to start with the new controller but the fellow that makes these also makes a W-bus module that he swore would fire my heater and would be cheaper. You know the rest of that story.

I put in the new controller in such haste I forgot to take a photo it. It was a flat control board with much less stuff on it. the original pictured below is much more complex.




I also got a buy from the same place I bought the heaters and landed a few dosing pumps to go with them. The pump as you can see has a tube that goes into the fuel tank and draws fuel directly. In this case it was the exact part for my car and there was even a hanger on the side of the tank that it snapped into. I had to cut the top off a tube that was already sticking up and marked for cutting to insert the probe. One small hoseclamp and all is good.




So I ran the fuel line and wires together in the same channel as the existing lines and put on the controller and wired it in. I even included the OBDII connector I used for testing so that I can hook into the heater and look if I have any problems.

I put a thirty minute timer in the console to turn it on figuring that would work just fine. This morning as I was taking my little dog out as usual for his morning romp before I brush my teeth and hit the road, I turned on the heater. About 8 minutes later I was starting the car. It was only 25 deg F this morning so not as cold as it had been, but when i started the car i noticed the coolant temp was alredy 44 deg C or 110 F. I had some heat and defrost as I rolled away from my parking spot. The car warms up noticeably much faster now and in two miles it was as hot as it has gotten all winter on my normal morning commute. It hit 75C or 165 by that point. By the time I hit the long downhill on my morning drive it was 87C , or 188F, a dramatic improvement. As I drove down the hill, 10 miles with throttle off, the temp dropped to the low sixties and I still had some heat. The average fuel economy was also higher than all other previous runs. I have secretly hoped the extra heat faster might offset the fuel burn from the heater. My contact at Webasto tech says that heater will burn 14 hours on a gallon of fuel at full burn rate.

I did a bit of observation with my test heater fired on the bench for a couple of days and found that it would heat my 3 gallons of water to 165F 75C and then shut back to 40% power until it achieved about 78C, then shut off. At 60C, 140F it fires back up and repeats the cycle as long as you have it commanded to be on. I noticed on my commute that is operated exactly that way in the car. i noticed the heat output was very good till about 78C on the gauge, then the heater shut off and the engine temp actually dropped to 74C right away and then inched back up as I drove.

Finally I have my heater functioning and know exactly what I need to do to run the others. It has been a long wait, but I feel the result is worth the effort in the end.
 
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nokivasara

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Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Location
Sweden @ Lat 61N
TDI
Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
I had a Transit Connect with a Eberspächer diesel powered heater and I think it had a 6kW output, so they do heat up the engine pretty quickly.
I had my timer set at 25 minutes and even when it was -20C it was enough to heat the engine and melt the ice on the windscreen.
I really miss having that, one of those things you never knew you needed until you tried one :D
 

pdq import repair

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
After a week of running with the new heater, I don't know how I lived without it and why they didn't offer it over on this side of the pond. In the morning I give it 8-10 minutes of run time with my normal schedule and there is heat and defrost available as I drive away. I know it hasn't been frigid cold, but it has been in the 20's most mornings.

The engine definitely heats up faster with it. If I hop in the car and the scangauge shows less than 60C engine temp I turn the timer a notch and drive away. There is heat almost immediately and the engine warms right up. Great for running short errands comfortably. I think this time of year I could just run the heater command off the ignition and be good to go.

I burned a tank of fuel through the car with the heater operating anytime the temps were 60 or less and the fuel economy is actually up from subsequent tanks. I think engine heat makes the difference as I am getting near summer fuel economy now, calculated from the fill and not read off the dash, though that number is up too curiously.
 

pdq import repair

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Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Location
idaho
TDI
09 Jetta
Update.now that it is near springtime I can't use the heater to it's full potential but I am using it every morning to test for fuel economy and whatnot. Lows have been in the 10's to 20's most nights and i have been turning the heater on every morning. fuel economy after 4 tanks now is not much different from my Fuelly logs of last year at this time, so it is offsetting the fuel it burns by heating the engine faster and increasing efficiency. I put in a Polar FIS since last report and can't get it to show engine temp in centegrade as I prefer, but I have rewired my brain back to Fahrenheit instead. It does fool the dash fuel economy display into reading higher because the fuel burned in the heater is not allowed for, but no matter I am calculating actual mileage the good old fashioned way.

It will turn on in the morning and run till 160 degrees f and shut down to half burn. If it keeps heating it will shut of at 167 f, It will restart again if coolant temp drops to 135 f. So on short trip errands around town I am running it pretty consistently. I love the heat output.

All in all I still feel it is a perfect addition to the car and negates the heat deficit problems associated with the diesel. I won't say i am anxious for winter to strt again, but at least I am ready.
 

darKchina811

New member
Joined
Aug 26, 2018
Location
ITALY
TDI
Golf 7
Hello, I found this thread while googling around. I have a Golf 2016 and also want to do the Aux Heater retrofit. I bought all the major components from wrecked cars, it was a real deal with most of it. The parts are all OEM so it will be like it was installed in the factory, or close.

While I am comfortable with electronics, and already figured out all the wiring I need to do, I am a little scared with the fuel part, and the coolant circuit part. Would you will to share some details?

I have the OEM fuel pump and it has what looks to be a long plastic "needle" that goes into the fuel tank. Well, how do I put it in? I suppose drilling a hole in a fuel tank is out of the game. Manuals say also something about filling/bleeding the fuel line as well. Do you have any insight?

For the coolant circuit, the Aux Heater has two big hoses that have to be connected somewhere, effectively putting the Heater in series with the circuit. How do I figure out where?
Again, they talk about bleeding the coolant circuit after, any thoughts?

Thank you very much, I am really looking forward to this upgrade before winter strikes.
 

relumalutan

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Location
Michigan
TDI
06 Jetta TDI Special Edition
Slim chanches to get an answer. LAst time OP has been active ont his forum was on January 2021...
 
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