Need advice installing auxiliary/parking heater on Vauxhall

Need advice installing auxiliary/parking heater on Vauxhall

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dquelhas

Original Poster:

8 posts

64 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Model: Corsa Excite AC
Body: 5 Door Hatchback
BHP: 83.0
Engine Size: 1229
Year: 2014

Hi guys - I'm looking to install an auxiliary/parking heater on my 2014 Vauxhall Corsa Excite AC. Did a few searches on youtube (I'm a complete newbie) and quickly realised I wouldn't be able to do this myself. So I'm now looking for a garage that can install one for me. However, these damn things are really expensive!

So I have a couple of questions before I take the plunge:
- Is it relatively safe to buy a second hand auxiliary/parking heater?
- Couldn't find any specific auxiliary/parking heater for Vauxhall Corsa models. Will any auxiliary/parking heater fit? If not, what specs am I searching for my car model?
- What is most recommended, water or fuel auxiliary/parking heaters?

Any help much appreciated!

Cheers,
D

GreenV8S

30,149 posts

283 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Are you in a region where these are commonly used? If not, you might struggle to find an ordinary garage willing to take responsibility for installing it. You also need to check whether your insurers will accept this as a modification and whether they impose any restrictions on it - for example they might require a qualified engineer's report.

Once you know what your constraints are and have found somebody willing to do the job, I suggest you let them deal with choosing and sourcing any hardware you need. Yes, it will need to be suitable for the vehicle which means there's physical space for it and the associated plumbing and wiring, and it needs to have a suitable performance. I would be surprised if somebody taking on that job would want to use a second hand component, but that's something you'd need to discuss with them.

One option if you decide to go ahead with this is to look for a small locally based race team. In my experience people involved in preparing competition vehicles are more used to designing and building their own solutions than people who usually service production cars, and they might be up for a small job for extra cash if you catch them off season.

E-bmw

9,105 posts

151 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Are you copying & pasting this question with all options you want on your car?

Mignon

1,018 posts

88 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
Are you copying & pasting this question with all options you want on your car?
I think it's called fantasy tuning. Adding a whole bunch of expensive stuff you're never actually going to do to a POS little car and seeing who'll bite in here.

dquelhas

Original Poster:

8 posts

64 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
GreenV8S said:
Are you in a region where these are commonly used? If not, you might struggle to find an ordinary garage willing to take responsibility for installing it. You also need to check whether your insurers will accept this as a modification and whether they impose any restrictions on it - for example they might require a qualified engineer's report.

Once you know what your constraints are and have found somebody willing to do the job, I suggest you let them deal with choosing and sourcing any hardware you need. Yes, it will need to be suitable for the vehicle which means there's physical space for it and the associated plumbing and wiring, and it needs to have a suitable performance. I would be surprised if somebody taking on that job would want to use a second hand component, but that's something you'd need to discuss with them.

One option if you decide to go ahead with this is to look for a small locally based race team. In my experience people involved in preparing competition vehicles are more used to designing and building their own solutions than people who usually service production cars, and they might be up for a small job for extra cash if you catch them off season.
Thank you for the comprehensive feedback. It sounds like an awful lot of work, and it's becoming clear, as per @E-bmw's comment on a different post of mine, that I need to get a new car. It's just that I really like my Corsa and would like to keep it for a while longer. Again, feedback much appreciated

dquelhas

Original Poster:

8 posts

64 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
Are you copying & pasting this question with all options you want on your car?
I wanted to keep the posts separate not to muddle topics. Apologies if that's not in line with this forum's etiquette. I'll put all questions in one post in the future.

dquelhas

Original Poster:

8 posts

64 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
Mignon said:
E-bmw said:
Are you copying & pasting this question with all options you want on your car?
I think it's called fantasy tuning. Adding a whole bunch of expensive stuff you're never actually going to do to a POS little car and seeing who'll bite in here.
I'm old enough to not want to waste people's time. Apologies if that was the impression I left with the questions I posted. The truth is I know very little about cars and was trying to keep my Corsa for a while longer by adding comforts it doesn't offer. You guys are probably right, I need to buy a new car. Thank you for your time.

GreenV8S

30,149 posts

283 months

Thursday 8th November 2018
quotequote all
dquelhas said:
trying to keep my Corsa for a while longer by adding comforts it doesn't offer
If the aux heater was just for comfort, you could consider putting an ordinary domestic electric heater in the car and running that for half an hour before you go out. It makes a big difference in freezing weather - by the time the cabin has lost its initial heat, the engine is starting to come up to temperature and can take over. Does mean a bit of faffing about with cables but it's a price I'm happy to pay to avoid scraping freezing windows in the wee hours.

imagineifyeswill

1,224 posts

165 months

Sunday 11th November 2018
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if you just want the vehicle to be warm first thing in the morning then you can get block heaters which fit in the coolant system, they plug into the mains and keep the coolant at operating temperature so yo get instant heat and defrosting. If your talking about about night heaters as used by truckers then they are quite expensive and more so in 12volt versions, also they run on diesel so can only be fitted to diesel vehicles and I doubt there would be any suitable space to fit one on a corsa.