Webasto FBH: fright of my life!

goltho · 13th January 2022, 22:05

This tourer is the first 75 I've had that has a FBH fitted. I've had it since October and have just about got everything up to spec and straight now. The heater was never a priority so I've not looked at it, presuming that it was dead anyway.

This morning (cold, frosty), I moved the car about 50 yards onto my drive to start work on a couple of things. Switched it off, walked away, and thought, "Hmm, strong diesel fumes this morning. Must be the cold weather." Then turned round and saw (quite a lot of) light blue exhaust fumes emitting from the passenger-side wheel arch. Zoomed back to the car, opened the bonnet, and found the FBH running! Heard the sound of a fan or pump running and a muted sound of what I presumed was the burner. It stopped of its own accord after about 20 seconds of my opening the bonnet.

Played around with ignition positions & engine start to see if it would run again, and it did. (I'm not clear if it fired up with ignition-only (the fan/pump did) but seemed to do so with engine running.)

So am I right in thinking that it came on with the engine start because it was <5ºC, and that it guffed out smoke due to general inactivity and/or carbon build-up, and that in fact it most likely has been running on previous cold mornings that I wasn't aware of? I can't remember the last time I used the car before 10:00am and it's not generally dead cold where I live. I surely though would have known if it had been running?

I've unplugged the two connectors meantime...

Dougie.

13th January 2022, 22:05	#1
goltho Can't help myself Rover 75 CDTi 2005 Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Lincoln Posts: 871 Thanks: 469 Thanked 150 Times in 113 Posts	Webasto FBH: fright of my life! This tourer is the first 75 I've had that has a FBH fitted. I've had it since October and have just about got everything up to spec and straight now. The heater was never a priority so I've not looked at it, presuming that it was dead anyway. This morning (cold, frosty), I moved the car about 50 yards onto my drive to start work on a couple of things. Switched it off, walked away, and thought, "Hmm, strong diesel fumes this morning. Must be the cold weather." Then turned round and saw (quite a lot of) light blue exhaust fumes emitting from the passenger-side wheel arch. Zoomed back to the car, opened the bonnet, and found the FBH running! Heard the sound of a fan or pump running and a muted sound of what I presumed was the burner. It stopped of its own accord after about 20 seconds of my opening the bonnet. Played around with ignition positions & engine start to see if it would run again, and it did. (I'm not clear if it fired up with ignition-only (the fan/pump did) but seemed to do so with engine running.) So am I right in thinking that it came on with the engine start because it was <5ºC, and that it guffed out smoke due to general inactivity and/or carbon build-up, and that in fact it most likely has been running on previous cold mornings that I wasn't aware of? I can't remember the last time I used the car before 10:00am and it's not generally dead cold where I live. I surely though would have known if it had been running? I've unplugged the two connectors meantime... Dougie. __________________ R75 C2 RJBLH Connoisseur CDTi Auto Saloon • Built 08/02/2005 @14:57 hrs: Registered 26/08/2005 • 122nd of 141 built that day • British Racing Green Pearlescent (HFF) • Sandstone leather with black piping (SPJ) • 137,000 miles Last edited by goltho; 13th January 2022 at 22:08..