Bongo Fury

Morning all...
My front heater doesn't work so been through the various checks as recommended:

1) Fan was jammed, eased off a bit by hand & will turn when 12V is applied across the terminals. Need to strip & lube it though once I figure out how to get it out.

2) No power coming into connection block for fan.

3) Resistor block looks ok as far as I can tell.

4) No power coming into resistor block

5) Rear heater operates when switched on & front fan turned to 1, so I assume that the switch control itself is ok.

So, I'm guessing that the relay is at fault. I believe that this is located beside the battery, but I have 3 of them there, mounted in a row on the wing. Can anyone help identify which is the front heater fan relay? Or identify what the other 2 relays are - I could find the fan one by a process of elimination then.

Thanks
Rhod

Resistor/rheostat has packed in Rhod - plenty bumf in search about it

Thanks Dandywarhol

Resistor does look OK, but could be U/S. No power coming into it though, as far as I can tell, so suspect problem is elsewhere. The fact sheet suggests that there is a relay in the circuit & if this had failed it could explain why the dashboard switch appears to work, but there is no power in the main circuit. Looks as though I may just have to check through all the relays to try & find if one is faulty. Oh for a wiring diagram
Rhod

Can't help you much there Rhod but under the bonnett there is a 30A fuse for the heater - there's a row of 6 fuses running east/west acdross the van - it's the one second from the passenger's side.

There is a possibility that the wiring diagram you require is on the CD-ROM sold by Ian in the club shop. But while a competent auto electrician can follow the schematics the notes on the CD-ROM are in Japanese.

Thanks both.
Ian's still on holiday, so can't access the wiring diagrams at the moment - but doubt if any stretch of the imagination would call me a "competent auto-electrician" in any case

None the 3 relays seemed to have anything to do with the heater circuit, but when I rechecked the connector block coming into the resistor I did get a voltage reading of 12, so looks as if circuit is live. Resistor block looks ok, but no connectivity across "live" terminal and other ones - so I think you were right and that's the guilty party. Replacement resistor on the way from the supplier of the vehicle, so will be a few days before I can confirm.
Rhod

If you've ordered a new one, why not rip it apart and repair it? There's loadsa info on here about how to do it - I recently repaired mine by breaking open the case - resoldering the contacts - then Aralditing around the case to protect it from water, etc - jobs a good-un!

Also, I feel that the glue should stop it becoming unsoldered again in a hurry - the strip contacts do see to be naturally biased towards being apart - so in an overheat situation they want to spring apart - the Araldite, I think, will stop this happening.

Mike

Will probably have a go at repairing the existing resistor when I have time. It was a fault with the van when sold, so the supplier is providing replacement resistor free. Just hope that sorts it!
Rhod

Rhod wrote:Will probably have a go at repairing the existing resistor when I have time. It was a fault with the van when sold, so the supplier is providing replacement resistor free. Just hope that sorts it!
Rhod

but shouldnt the supplier be fitting it too then, or are you just happy to do it?

"Happy" is not necessarily the operative word..... but a 10 hour trip each way plus the fuel used means that taking it back for him to sort is not a viable option Although, if the resistor isn't the problem, that may become necessary!
Rhod

Ah! Yes, if course, that would make a difference. Although it might be possible to argue that physical distance from him shouldn't make it impossible for you to realise your guarantee. If the car is clearly faulty, he should at least pay for parts and might be persuaded to let it be fitted locally, or else contribute to the cost of getting the Bongo back to him (I think the Sale of Goods Act says, for example, that the purchasor should not have to pay to return faulty goods within the 6 months after purchase - this may have parallels with your case?). Of course its better to get goodwill if you can but best to research your rights anyway.

Good luck.

Mike