Anyone got a spare working heater control box??
Discussion
450Nick said:
Mine seems to have packed up, does anyone have a spare good one?? If not, any idea which bit tends to break?
Have you pulled the white multi-plug off it and looked at the contacts? One of them is under-specced and tends to burn out. I bypassed mine with a bit of wire and a soldering iron.QBee said:
Have you pulled the white multi-plug off it and looked at the contacts? One of them is under-specced and tends to burn out. I bypassed mine with a bit of wire and a soldering iron.
Yup, all checked and that's not the issue, it seems it's just burned out for some reason...! I think the part number is MEO227 if that helps?It may be possible that the heater fan itself has got stuck/siezed somehow, overloading the control box board. Worth checking before you replace the control box and blow another one. I am not an auto electrician, and the circuit might be fused in some way, it might not - need to read up in the bible.....
BUT
Back in 1984 I had a brand new Renault 25, and when the car was just six weeks old I was sat in traffic in central London, when smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet. Headlights came on too, so I yanked the bonnet up and whipped the main battery lead off. Saved the car, but it cost £4000 to have the main wiring loom completely replaced. The cooling fan main bearing had collapsed and the fan blades had caught on the radiator, jamming the fan. The circuit wasn't fused, so the wiring all melted. And I mean all, and it was about to burst into flames.
Waited for the AA, car parked in Shaftesbury Avenue with the bonnet up and blackened melted wiring everywhere, popped into a shop to have a pee, came out to find some b
d tt of a traffic warden had stuck a ticket on the car.
ETA the heater is protected by a 15 amp fuse on most cars, it is either the 4th, 7th or 8th fuse from the right hand end of the main fuse board in the footwell
BUT
Back in 1984 I had a brand new Renault 25, and when the car was just six weeks old I was sat in traffic in central London, when smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet. Headlights came on too, so I yanked the bonnet up and whipped the main battery lead off. Saved the car, but it cost £4000 to have the main wiring loom completely replaced. The cooling fan main bearing had collapsed and the fan blades had caught on the radiator, jamming the fan. The circuit wasn't fused, so the wiring all melted. And I mean all, and it was about to burst into flames.
Waited for the AA, car parked in Shaftesbury Avenue with the bonnet up and blackened melted wiring everywhere, popped into a shop to have a pee, came out to find some b
d tt of a traffic warden had stuck a ticket on the car.ETA the heater is protected by a 15 amp fuse on most cars, it is either the 4th, 7th or 8th fuse from the right hand end of the main fuse board in the footwell
Edited by QBee on Wednesday 4th June 13:50
QBee said:
It may be possible that the heater fan itself has got stuck/siezed somehow, overloading the control box board. Worth checking before you replace the control box and blow another one. I am not an auto electrician, and the circuit might be fused in some way, it might not - need to read up in the bible.....
BUT
Back in 1984 I had a brand new Renault 25, and when the car was just six weeks old I was sat in traffic in central London, when smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet. Headlights came on too, so I yanked the bonnet up and whipped the main battery lead off. Saved the car, but it cost £4000 to have the main wiring loom completely replaced. The cooling fan main bearing had collapsed and the fan blades had caught on the radiator, jamming the fan. The circuit wasn't fused, so the wiring all melted. And I mean all, and it was about to burst into flames.
Waited for the AA, car parked in Shaftesbury Avenue with the bonnet up and blackened melted wiring everywhere, popped into a shop to have a pee, came out to find some bd tt of a traffic warden had stuck a ticket on the car.
ETA the heater is protected by a 15 amp fuse on most cars, it is either the 4th, 7th or 8th fuse from the right hand end of the main fuse board in the footwell
Thanks for the help, but no I've got TVR guru Steve Howard looking at it and he's tested the fan and checked the contacts - his prognosis is that the box is dead so I either send it for repair or if someone has one spare then I can just replace it... BUT
Back in 1984 I had a brand new Renault 25, and when the car was just six weeks old I was sat in traffic in central London, when smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet. Headlights came on too, so I yanked the bonnet up and whipped the main battery lead off. Saved the car, but it cost £4000 to have the main wiring loom completely replaced. The cooling fan main bearing had collapsed and the fan blades had caught on the radiator, jamming the fan. The circuit wasn't fused, so the wiring all melted. And I mean all, and it was about to burst into flames.
Waited for the AA, car parked in Shaftesbury Avenue with the bonnet up and blackened melted wiring everywhere, popped into a shop to have a pee, came out to find some b
d tt of a traffic warden had stuck a ticket on the car.ETA the heater is protected by a 15 amp fuse on most cars, it is either the 4th, 7th or 8th fuse from the right hand end of the main fuse board in the footwell
Edited by QBee on Wednesday 4th June 13:50
450Nick said:
Mother of god that's steep! What unusual or exotic materials are inside this box?!
Agree - You'd think it would be stuffed with rare earth metals or a quantum processor at that price but it is intact the dullest most mundane collection of resistors and transistors you have ever seen. It is a complete rip off I'm afraid.450Nick said:
Mother of god that's steep! What unusual or exotic materials are inside this box?!
Expensive Yes... But I look at it that it was money well spent as I now have warm air pumping through within minutes and really hot air after 10 mins so at least I can see what the money spent is actually doing.Where as spending £340 on induction pipe and silicone hoses that to me has made no difference at all apart from I've now got a bit of blue in the engine
phazed said:
Are we talking about some sort of fan controller?
Yes, it's a black control box, size of a 40-pack of fags IYSWIM, in the space under the dash top, behind the instruments. Controls the heater fan. Most common fault is that one of the terminals on the multi-plug cannot cope with the current and so burns out and has to be bypassed - which is not the OP's issue. His electronics in the box seem to have died.QBee said:
Yes, it's a black control box, size of a 40-pack of fags IYSWIM, in the space under the dash top, behind the instruments. Controls the heater fan. Most common fault is that one of the terminals on the multi-plug cannot cope with the current and so burns out and has to be bypassed - which is not the OP's issue. His electronics in the box seem to have died.
Correct, Steve said TVR electronics leave a little to be desired and as they're hand made, they can (and do) randomly fail with seemingly no reason. He's tested everything else and confirmed that it is the box... Managed to find a guy who repairs all of the TVR control boxes though so just waiting for an email back from him to see what a repair will cost.. 450Nick said:
Correct, Steve said TVR electronics leave a little to be desired and as they're hand made, they can (and do) randomly fail with seemingly no reason. He's tested everything else and confirmed that it is the box... Managed to find a guy who repairs all of the TVR control boxes though so just waiting for an email back from him to see what a repair will cost..
I've just hit the same problem with mine, if its OK with you could you let me have the contact details for the guy you found that will do a repair on the unit. (PM me if you like)Cheers
Frank
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