Problem with Chinese Diesel Heater in Van – Error E04…
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Problem with Chinese Diesel Heater in Van – Error E04 despite new heater and new pump
Hello everyone,
I have a problem with the diesel heater in our van and need to give some background information. By the way, yes I used ChatGPT to structure and translate the message.
**Initial situation**
We bought the van already fully converted, including a Chinese diesel heater. At the beginning it worked well, but over time its performance declined until it stopped working completely. In the end, the heater appeared to be “flooded”:
* The combustion chamber was likely filled with diesel
* During a test, diesel was dripping out of the heater exhaust
* Ignition and combustion were no longer possible
**Replacing the heater**
My brother had spare diesel heaters (probably the "russian" one), so we removed the defective unit and installed another one. This replacement heater likely had a higher output (approximately 8 kW instead of the previous 5 kW).
Important details:
* The replacement heater was physically identical (same size, same connectors, same fittings)
* The only visible differences were the housing color and a slightly different control panel (one or two additional or different buttons)
* The diesel supply comes directly from the vehicle’s main fuel tank, not from a separate tank (not really important, but maybe someone would ask)
**Initial behavior of the replacement heater**
After installation:
* The heater ran for about three minutes
* It produced significantly more heat than the previous one
* After that, the fuse for the heater blew every time (on the vehicle’s electrical fuse panel)
We also tested:
* a higher-rated fuse → which blew immediately as well
In this state, both the heater and the fuel pump were functioning until the fuse failed.
**Suspected short circuit / power supply issue**
My assumption was that the wiring routed through a toggle switch might was causing a short circuit. Therefore, we:
* bypassed the toggle switch
* connected the heater directly to the leisure (house) battery
This was installed properly and cleanly.
In addition, we:
* replaced the control panel / control unit as well
**Fuel pump**
Initially, only the heater itself was replaced; the old fuel pump remained installed. In this configuration, the new heater did run briefly as mentioned above.
When the old pump later stopped responding:
* we replaced it with the new pump
* performed a 1:1 swap
* same connector, same wiring, same port
**Current problem**
The current situation is:
* heater is new
* fuel pump is new
* control unit is new
* power is supplied directly from the leisure battery
However:
* the control unit immediately shows an error on startup
* error code: **E04**
* according to documentation: “no pump detected / no connection to pump”
What we checked:
* all connectors between heater and pump multiple times
* unplugged and reconnected everything
* no improvement
The error appears **immediately** as soon as the control unit receives power.
**My thoughts**
At this point I am running out of ideas. One possibility I considered is:
* that excessive current may have flowed through the control cable to the pump
* potentially damaging something inside the heater itself at the pump output
However, this seems unlikely to me, as the current on that line should normally be quite low.
**Questions**
* What could be causing error E04 in this situation?
* What would you check or do next?
* Should I even bother replacing it or should I just go for a Gas-Heater?
Thank you very much for your help.
#lifestyle
source
Hello everyone,
I have a problem with the diesel heater in our van and need to give some background information. By the way, yes I used ChatGPT to structure and translate the message.
**Initial situation**
We bought the van already fully converted, including a Chinese diesel heater. At the beginning it worked well, but over time its performance declined until it stopped working completely. In the end, the heater appeared to be “flooded”:
* The combustion chamber was likely filled with diesel
* During a test, diesel was dripping out of the heater exhaust
* Ignition and combustion were no longer possible
**Replacing the heater**
My brother had spare diesel heaters (probably the "russian" one), so we removed the defective unit and installed another one. This replacement heater likely had a higher output (approximately 8 kW instead of the previous 5 kW).
Important details:
* The replacement heater was physically identical (same size, same connectors, same fittings)
* The only visible differences were the housing color and a slightly different control panel (one or two additional or different buttons)
* The diesel supply comes directly from the vehicle’s main fuel tank, not from a separate tank (not really important, but maybe someone would ask)
**Initial behavior of the replacement heater**
After installation:
* The heater ran for about three minutes
* It produced significantly more heat than the previous one
* After that, the fuse for the heater blew every time (on the vehicle’s electrical fuse panel)
We also tested:
* a higher-rated fuse → which blew immediately as well
In this state, both the heater and the fuel pump were functioning until the fuse failed.
**Suspected short circuit / power supply issue**
My assumption was that the wiring routed through a toggle switch might was causing a short circuit. Therefore, we:
* bypassed the toggle switch
* connected the heater directly to the leisure (house) battery
This was installed properly and cleanly.
In addition, we:
* replaced the control panel / control unit as well
**Fuel pump**
Initially, only the heater itself was replaced; the old fuel pump remained installed. In this configuration, the new heater did run briefly as mentioned above.
When the old pump later stopped responding:
* we replaced it with the new pump
* performed a 1:1 swap
* same connector, same wiring, same port
**Current problem**
The current situation is:
* heater is new
* fuel pump is new
* control unit is new
* power is supplied directly from the leisure battery
However:
* the control unit immediately shows an error on startup
* error code: **E04**
* according to documentation: “no pump detected / no connection to pump”
What we checked:
* all connectors between heater and pump multiple times
* unplugged and reconnected everything
* no improvement
The error appears **immediately** as soon as the control unit receives power.
**My thoughts**
At this point I am running out of ideas. One possibility I considered is:
* that excessive current may have flowed through the control cable to the pump
* potentially damaging something inside the heater itself at the pump output
However, this seems unlikely to me, as the current on that line should normally be quite low.
**Questions**
* What could be causing error E04 in this situation?
* What would you check or do next?
* Should I even bother replacing it or should I just go for a Gas-Heater?
Thank you very much for your help.
#lifestyle
source
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