No heat on the road in my Setra

[eb99603]

I'm in the coach headed north, and we learned this morning that I lost driver's heat at some point. The big coolant pipes underneath the center aisle are both cold, so we're not getting any warm coolant up for the passenger compartment or the driver. This used to work well.

Feels like there's a valve closed back by the engine but I've never touched anything back there. Any ideas out there?

[Iceni John]

Check the circuit breaker or fuse for the coolant circulation pump.   When did you last have heat in the front  -  has anything been changed since then?

John

[eb99603]

Hey John. Thanks for the pointer. It was a long (and warm) day on the road after hanging out in Canadian customs. The circulation pump breaker/relay compartment is blocked by my belongings and I didn't have a great place to empty it. Now that we're at the hotel with a good parking spot, I'll go digging tomorrow morning. I'll let you all know what I find.

Nothing coolant related has changed since it last worked (early May-ish?) but I have been working in the main relay compartment fixing the cruise wiring and chasing wires. But perhaps I bumped a previously loose connection somewhere.

[eb99603]

Ok so this is odd. We have power back at the pump. The webasto is bypassed and always has been during my ownership of this vehicle. The pump, however, is disconnected. It seems to pump when plugged in (albeit it's not the smoothest running thing in the world).

Engine is warming up now while we eat breakfast. We'll see if we get heat up front with the pump plugged in. If that works..why on earth did I have it before? This plug didn't unscrew itself.   



Also what is this valve? It's just left of the webasto.

[Scott & Heather]

I have no knowledge of setras so take this with a grain or two, but that valve looks like a gate valve to shut off the coolant flow to your coach/driver heater cores. We have two on our MCI. Since our over the road heater cores were both removed (which I throughly regret) those gate valves were closed to prevent coolant loss at the cut copped piping that formerly went to the heater cores.


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[B_K]

John Eric call me!
 BK  

(sorry I mixed up the names from yours and John's post!)

[B_K]

I have no knowledge of grains or two, but I did once sleep in a Holiday Inn Express!

Eric hope I was of some assistance on the phone!
No on closer view of the above photo the valve with the knob appears to be some sort of variation of the valve I was describing to you.  (and appears to be located in the right spot too!)
I've never seen one with the gate vale knob before. But it appears the little black box with the wires on it is the same black box I'm used to on the valves I was describing to you.
  BK 

[opus]

You should yard that Webasto out and think very highly of letting me acquire it. 

[eb99603]

Alrighty - I'm finally getting back to working on this beast again. For the remainder of our drive north, we enjoyed the sun's warmth during the day and a blanket over the legs after the sun went down.

While I'm fixing this to get coolant up front, I figure I might as well explore this Webasto situation at the same time.My webasto's been bypassed and I can only assume that was done because it's non operational. I have no idea what it'll cost to fix, or how much effort is involved with that. I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this 80k BTU ProHeat as a drop-in replacement. http://www.ebay.com/itm/ProHeat-M80-24V-Coolant-Heater-New-in-Box-NSN-2540200038601-/251873115364

I haven't begun doing any serious conversion inside so I haven't committed to a heat strategy yet, but I figured for $500 (or less, if the seller accepts a lower price) I can get get back to having an engine preheater and some supplemental heat in the cabin with all of the existing heat exchangers. Once I start digging into the conversion, I can add an exchanger for hot water, or whatever else I need. I suspect I'll probably do a hydronic heat system with a small woodstove, but even if I did something entirely different it seems like I'd be hard pressed to get my Webasto fixed or a suitable engine preheater installed for less than $500.

Am I missing anything here? I assume the Setra's climate control system might not integrate directly with the ProHeat like it did with the Webasto, and some manual intervention might be in order. Does anyone have any insight here (looking at you BK). Is a Webasto -> ProHeat conversion not as straightforward as it sounds?

[eb99603]

Well, here we are nearly 7 months later and I didn't touch the Webasto or replace it with the ProHeat. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express. No, wait. I did fix the heat.

BK was spot on, that valve was toast. Well, the solenoid that controlled its actuation was toast. I had no continuity between the terminals.

I just wanted to close out this thread with an actual answer/solution, for anyone who might stumble upon it in the future. Nothing is more annoying than finding a thread with the same problem you're encountering, but no documented solution. So here's the solution: 


One manual ball valve, and we have heat again (when I open it). Woohoo! Without having any good rubber hoses long enough to pinch nearby, I just worked as quickly as I could in swapping the valves. I lost almost exactly one gallon of coolant in the process, but I didn't have to drain the system and I see no evidence of air bubbles being introduced. Win-win.

[Scott & Heather]

Wonderful! And easy! Must be nice to have good heat!!


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[DoubleEagle]

Those are just like the manual valves on my model 10 Eagle. There is something good about simple mechanical devices as long as they are in a place that you can reach, and the previous owner told you about them.