Servicing an Eberspacher D1LC Blown Air Heater

Before doing any of the following, you'll need to completely remove the unit from your vehicle. There's no chance you can do this in-situ! Most of this is covered in the service manuals, but I found it helpful to see actual photos, so I thought it would be good to document the process.

First open up the panel on the corner using an allen key (not sure what size it is - I just try from the set until I get the one that fits!). The glow plug is on the right in this picture with the electrical contacts screwed on.

Next you need to get the casing open. This can be a little tricky as the plastic rivets splay oout once they've been inserted making it all but impossible to pull them outwithoug breaking them. Unless, that is, you do the following: with the panel open (as above), you should be able to pull the casing out enough to get a very small allen key in so that the right angle part fits inside the middle of the plastic rivet - you can push the middle barrel back out (as shown below) and this will let you pull the whole rivet out.

The glow plug may well need replacing depending on use. Undo the electrical connections then unscrew the whole plug. Here's my old one - which could have another 6 months left on it - and a brand new on for comparison.

With the glow plug removed, you should be able to look inside the heater. Does it look black and nasty in there? Inside that hole is a shield, a tube of gauze that almost certainly will need replacing. Take a moment to remove any crap in this hole, ensuring that it falls out of the hole, not back into the burner!

There are four screws holding the two parts of the unit together (blower motor on left here, burner part on the right). You'll need to remove an obstruction to get to one of the screws. That screw is the one almost in the middle of this picture below which would be obstructed by the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) to the left. The ECU slides out, but you'll need to disconnect electrical connections.

Here's the ECU removed:

And these were the plugs I needed to disconnect to separate the two halves of the unit:

Broken in two!

The next thing to do is remove the baffle plate. Be careful here - if you shear of these screws, well, you're screwed! Use a good screwdriver and get them out in one piece.

Once you've opened it up, one of the gaskets will probably fall out in pieces. That 's the one on the left here. You do have a new one handy, don't you?

Another part that will almost certainly need replacing is the soft ring in the middle (old one is coming to pieces, to be replaced with this new yellow part).

Now to start the cleaning. Shake as much out as you can out of the chamber then go to work on it using a long screwdriver. I used a piece of sandpaper wrapped around the end for the parts that were near - do not try to poke something like that inside, as it will get lost and your heater will not be usable!!

Here you can see the new gasket and the flet ring in place, just before putting it back together. Notice the allen key in the picture - it's being put to use once again to make sure that the small hole that goes through to the glow plug is open and clear of crap. Remember, remove the allen key before re-assembling!

This is the reverse of the baffle plate. Mine was very coked up, so I went at it with a rotary wire brush attachment on my cordless drill.

This is an important step - remember to clear up the kitchen surface. Failure to do that will seriously affect your ability to switch the heater on and off!

Then it's just a case of re-installing the unit in the van/boat/car/whatever. Enjoy!