Xantia battery draining + smoke?

abinglis · Post by **abinglis** » 21 Mar 2005, 19:34

Hi, I have a 1999 2.0HDI(110) xantia estate. Before xmas my battery died, so a new one was installed and the car has worked fine since until today. At lunchtime the car would not turn over, I opened the bonnet in order to jump start from another battery and noticed smoke coming from the back of the top sound proof cover on the engine. I undid the 4 clips and took the cover off. Right at the back there is a silver housing which appears to have water hoses connected on either side, on the top of this there are two electrical wires connected, which in turn are bridged over to two more electrical points, all 4 connections are covered by a rubber boot. Now this housing appeared to be warm and the smoke looked like it was the rubber boot melting.
The smoke stopped after a few minutes, the car was jump started and I took it on a short spin of about 5 miles. Since then i have stopped and started several times and each time the engine has turned over without a problem.
I left the car to cool for about 1/2 hour and opened the bonnet, the afore mentioned housing appeared to be cool and there was no smoke.
Do any of you gurus out there have an idea as to my cars problem?
Thanks, Andy.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 21 Mar 2005, 19:59

Could be the heater! Yes you've probably got a diesel powered one!
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... C_ID=12369
jeremy

abinglis · Post by **abinglis** » 21 Mar 2005, 21:12

Jeremy, I take it the heater you refer to is the one in behind the wing? This is not where the smoke came from, it came from the very back of the engine bay. Now I am no Cit expert, I am guessing here, but could the housing i talk about be part of the heater matrix? (water hose on either side of the housing)
When I stated that the housing was hot, I was thinking that there was some electrical fault (relay?) that was suppling power to this housing whilst the engine was not running, therefore in turn draining my battery?
Andy.

abinglis · Post by **abinglis** » 22 Mar 2005, 17:18

This is a picture of the housing that i refer to in my previous posting,its is located at the back of the engine bay, it has the electrical connections on top covered by the rubber boot and has hoses at either side.
What is it? What does it do? Is there anyway it could be draining my battery on an intermitent basis?
Andy. 1999 Xantia SX HDI(110) Estate

miked · Post by **miked** » 22 Mar 2005, 17:30

Does the following thread help - Some HDI's have an electrical water heater
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... C_ID=11924

abinglis · Post by **abinglis** » 22 Mar 2005, 17:48

Thanks, it is an electrical water heater. For some reason it appears to stay on from time to time, this would explain why it was hot and why my battery is getting drained!
Now next question, does it have a separate fuse I can dissconnect to stop it working, I can live without extra heating. Have read the link on post from 'miked' it mention ECU and relay. Anyone know how to find out which one is casuing the problem? and how pricey are these things.
Any ideas.
Thanks, Andy

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 22 Mar 2005, 18:13

The heater must have some kind of a heavy duty relay in the circuit. Try follow the wiring to find "another box" which would have one heavy wire to the battery and the other one to the heater.
If this is not the case then the relay would be build in to the heater - and then it's a new heater.
It's the relay that fails.

abinglis · Post by **abinglis** » 22 Mar 2005, 18:23

Thanks Anders, I will try and trace the wiring. Meantime I got my Xantia handbook out and its appears that fuse F14 under the dashboard controls the 'injection ECU - Coolant temperature control unit', which is mentioned on one of the other threads, I will remove this fuse just now, until I get the problem sorted. Better no extra heating than a car that wont start!