Smoke from under LH fronf wing

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Rob ed

Member
Posts
15
Location
Wolverhampton
Hi,
Started my freelander up this morning and notice a noise from the LH front wing. While looking around to see where the noise was coming from smoke started to pour from what looks like an exhaust (photo attached).
Is this an FBH and if so how is it controlled as I have no mention of it inside the car?

Regards Rob
 
sorry here the pic....
 

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Photo looks like the exhaust for the FBH.
On the Discovery 3 it comes on when the outside temp is less than 6 degrees with the ignition on.
I also can switch it on via a 3rd button on my remote.
 
Hi,
Started my freelander up this morning and notice a noise from the LH front wing. While looking around to see where the noise was coming from smoke started to pour from what looks like an exhaust (photo attached).
Is this an FBH and if so how is it controlled as I have no mention of it inside the car?

Regards Rob
The FBH isn't mentioned in the owners manual, because there's no user control over it, without additional hardware.
I've a remote for mine, so I can preheat the engine and cabin from the comfort of my house.
 
Is thare a kit that can be retro fitted to allow the FBH to be remotely control?
Not an official kit I don't think. There was a timer kit for it many years back. However it was really expensive and I don't think may were sold.
The FBH is as simple to make run as a domestic heating boiler. In fact it's basically a miniature oil fired central heating boiler.
For making it remotely controlled it's simply a case of applying +12 Volts to pin 1 on the main X connector. It make the interior fan run under FBH control. You need to connect a relay to pin 4 of the X connector. The relay would power the the fan from a constant 12 Volts supply instead of the ignition supply. It took my about an hour to do mine and cost a few quid for a cheap remote control unit.

I was thinking about making up some remote kits, if there's enough interest, to make it worthwhile.
 
Don't know if it's available for the Freelander but there are kits for the Discovery 3 and Range Rover Sport
that switch it on from a mobile phone remotely or set at for a particular time to come on
 
Don't know if it's available for the Freelander but there are kits for the Discovery 3 and Range Rover Sport
that switch it on from a mobile phone remotely or set at for a particular time to come on
The D3 system is completely different to the FL1. The D3 uses a command on W bus to fire it up.
The FL1 doesn't. It's a simpler system and as far as I know, not compatible with D3 control stuff. You can't easily run the D3 heater remotely either, so it's kinda pointless. The D3 system doesn't really heat the whole system. The D3 FBH is plumbed into the heater circuit. This simply circulates coolant through the matrix and back through the FBH. Unless you can run the fan independently, the heat produced, goes to waste. The engine only gets small quantities of heated coolant too. So as soon as the engine is started, is dumps mildly warm coolant into the heater, undoing what the FBH burned fuel to do. This is a bit pointless imo. I know all this D3 stuff because I installed a 3rd button remote on my D3. It was ok at saving glow plugs, but didn't make much difference to cabin heat up times, when cold.
My DIY FL1 system heats the engine and cabin in 30 minutes. So I already have a completely hot car to drive to work in.
 
This is what the remote on the pre-facelift looked like. (as others have suggested, you could do it much cheaper with something else nowadays. I'm sure Maplin would have something that can control a relay remotely).

FullSizeRender_zpsrf0a2dst.jpg


I don't have the FBH on mine, but at this time of year, thinking about it as a retrofit project!

Jim
 
This is what the remote on the pre-facelift looked like. (as others have suggested, you could do it much cheaper with something else nowadays. I'm sure Maplin would have something that can control a relay remotely).

FullSizeRender_zpsrf0a2dst.jpg


I don't have the FBH on mine, but at this time of year, thinking about it as a retrofit project!

Jim

Nice find;)

I love my remote pre-heater.
Definitely worth a retrofit imho ;)
 
It is making me tempted. The misty windscreen is irritating in these wet/cold winter months. What kind of maintenance do those little Webasto FBHs need?
I've seen there are some older threads on here about fitting them. From what I can see it seems as if the hoses are the most difficult bit to get, as the breakers cut them off when stripping the rest of the engine/transmission.
 
But don't you miss the shock of ice-cold leather on the buttocks on a crisp winter's morning :eek:

Not at all. If the heat heater used less power. I'd hook them up to the remote too:)
It is making me tempted. The misty windscreen is irritating in these wet/cold winter months. What kind of maintenance do those little Webasto FBHs need?
I've seen there are some older threads on here about fitting them. From what I can see it seems as if the hoses are the most difficult bit to get, as the breakers cut them off when stripping the rest of the engine/transmission.

If the FBH is burning clean. It requires little maintenance. If it smokes lots, a combustion chamber clean is necessary. Not difficult but quite long winded.
 
My FBh plays up if I remove the fuse turn on ignition for a few secs turn off replace the fuse start car it cuts in and works for a bit then cuts out I'm wondering if it's the temp sensor because if I put that in the freezer it's runs normally till next time any ideas appreciated
 
My FBh plays up if I remove the fuse turn on ignition for a few secs turn off replace the fuse start car it cuts in and works for a bit then cuts out I'm wondering if it's the temp sensor because if I put that in the freezer it's runs normally till next time any ideas appreciated

It's more likely to need a clean of the combustion chamber. They can get very temperamental when they crud up inside. They have a complex control module, that senses a fault and shuts it down. Removing the fuse will clear the memory so it fires up, until the fault shuts it off again.

There is a diagnostic programme available free, but you need to make up a data lead to access the control board CPU.
 
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