Engine heater install

mcfly · Post by **mcfly** » 14.11.2009 2:01

Hi my name is Martti and as you can tell I speak english as I have been living abroad (Canada) for over 20 years so my finnish is poor at best. I have recently purchased a black 2006 Volkswagen passat variant 2.0 tdi 170 hp highline 6mt. The weather has become quite cold now and I would like to install a calix motorheater for my car. I plan to purchase the required pieces from motonet and do the install myself but since I am on holidays from work for a couple weeks and I have my first baby on the way also in 2 weeks I would like to try to save some money by attempting the installation myself. I was wondering if there is anyone here in the helsinki area that would like to assist me with this install and I will gladly pay for your help( hopefully not much)! Also if you know where I could purchase the parts any place cheaper than motonet would also help.

is95kiko · Post by **is95kiko** » 16.11.2009 22:36

Hello Martti

I think the cheapest place to purchase engine heater is from Motonet or Biltema. I have no knowledge in what kind of electric heater would fit to Passat but at least Motonet sales guys can help you. Defa provides electric heaters too, if Calix cannot provide such for Passat.

Have you considered using builtin Webasto as parking heater instead of electric heater? If your Passat is originally bought from Finland, it should have Webasto heater pre-installed, but providing only additional heat when car engine is running. You can get "upgrade" kits which enable you to remotely activate Webasto to defrost windows and provide heat to engine before starting.

Price of the "upgrade" kit is probably more than Calix heater, but provides comfort in form of remote control and it works anywhere. In addition to the upgrade kit installation, it might need some kind of "activation" by VW reseller or someone private person owning VAG-COM cable to control car computer.

I'm not living in Helsinki area so I'm not able to help you with the installation, but I would like to know how your project goes on and what are the costs. My Passat is imported from Germany and thus does not have builtin Webasto, I'm considering to install Calix/Defa engine heater too. I already bought upgrade kit for Webasto but found out that I do not have Webasto preinstalled. I might install Webasto and use that upgrade kit, or sell it if Webasto installation is too much for me.

Regards,
Kimmo

mcfly · Post by **mcfly** » 17.11.2009 6:16

My car is also from Germany. I have been to a Vw dealer in helsinki and they seem to think that all 2.0 tdi diesels come with the webasto which works while the car is running but now you have stated otherwise. How can you tell if you have the webasto heater installed. Where in the engine bay is it located. If you could post a pic to show the potential location of it to know if its installed or not. How much was the kit to use with it?

I think I am just going to go for the calix or defa systems depending on which is cheaper. Probably calix I figure. I have the cable which goes from the bumper to the electric post already which I kept from my previous vehicle (volvo). I have been pricing the pieces needed for the install from motonet and everything seems to be about 150€. This price includes the heating element, installation accessories and the cable from the bumper to the heating element and the addtional interior plug for warming the cabin as well.

Tommorrow I am going to go to my local aftermarket part shop nearby and to hessumobile to price these units against motonets prices. In one of my previous vehicles I had the system professionally installed in a car which I had also brought from Germany. The total cost was about 150€

is95kiko · Post by **is95kiko** » 17.11.2009 9:57

mcfly wrote:My car is also from Germany. I have been to a Vw dealer in helsinki and they seem to think that all 2.0 tdi diesels come with the webasto which works while the car is running but now you have stated otherwise. How can you tell if you have the webasto heater installed. Where in the engine bay is it located. If you could post a pic to show the potential location of it to know if its installed or not. How much was the kit to use with it?

I thought that too when I went to Germany to buy my Passat, but when looking into engine bay, was not able to find Webasto. I think that all Passat TDI 2.0's have webasto if they are ordered by Finnish VW dealer, because of the weather conditions. Buyers from others coutries might have to separately choose and pay from Webasto, so you are not able to find it from all German Passats.

I'm not 100% sure about the location, but here is picture from Touran? (two black hoses and exthause pipe coming from webasto):

So, Webasto should be inside front bumper, passenger side. You need to remove plastic covers to see it. There should also be Webasto sticker in engine bay somewhere. I checked my Passat's VIN code and saw that there is no webasto installed, I have not checked inside bumper yet.

Webasto remote control kit is called Telestart, and there should be at least three compatible (always check) models, T80, T90 and T91.
From www.ebay.de, price of the Telestart is somewhere about 200-250, depending on the model. But it might require something else than this. I think it is enough, but I have zero experience on this.

What comes to the electrical heater, I have heard that there is three different options: 1. engine block heater, 2. radiator hose heater, 3. engine oil pan heater.
I have understood that (1) is not possible to Passat. Then, (3) is not very efficient, so probably only option is (2). No affect to cabin heater, it should always work with any of these.

Tero Häkli · Post by **Tero Häkli** » 17.11.2009 21:12

telestart is not enough

if i remember right, it costs about 600€ to get it working properly, that price is without the telestart. I think Pasi Häkli remembers the price better

sorry bad english

mcfly · Post by **mcfly** » 17.11.2009 23:06

Well, I decided to go for the defa heating system over the calix. The prices of the parts for the calix is 161€. And the price of the defa is 241€. These are the prices from motonet for the whole kit for the 125 kw tdi motor. you may be wondering why I went for the more expensive option? I examined the parts from both kits and it is obvious the defa system is the much better quality product. An example of this is the heating element; the defa item is made from a stainless steel and comes with replacement hoses for the install. The calix is made of plastic and what appeared to be iron and does not include new hoses. I went to 4-5 different shops to price these kits and all of the shops sold defa only. I was pondering to buy the calix and have it installed professionally but the places I asked were hesitant to install the calix system for me. Ok I see that they are biased as they carry only defa therefore they want to sell their products but you have to wonder why no place has these kits. Motonet was the only place i found to carry the calix items.

So now I have the defa and I think I am going to have it professionally installed. Why? Well because my garage is small and I don't have a proper lift for the car. That and the fact I have purchased a 1 year warrenty from finntakuu for my car and if I muck it up and something goes wrong with my car my warrenty will be void. The risks seemed to outweigh the benefit of puttting it all myself to save some money. I usually consider myself to be pretty handy and try to do most of my own maintenance. But now I bit the bullet and shelled out the cash. The install is going to cost me a 100€. Seems like a fair deal to me for 2-3 hours of labour.

mcfly · Post by **mcfly** » 18.11.2009 13:03

Damnit! I bought the parts yesterday and I noticed that when I got home the heating element was the wrong type! So of course I went back to motonet and fetched the right piece. Nice thing was the heater for the (bmr) 2.0 tdi 125 kw motor is 30€ cheaper! That makes the kit 50€ more than the calix pieces. Not bad I'd say.

is95kiko · Post by **is95kiko** » 18.11.2009 21:19

Tero Häkli wrote:telestart is not enough if i remember right, it costs about 600€ to get it working properly, that price is without the telestart. I think Pasi Häkli remembers the price better sorry bad english

Hopely Pasi reads this and comments, I would really like to know what is needed. Hopely nothing that costs 600€

is95kiko · Post by **is95kiko** » 18.11.2009 21:25

mcfly wrote:... An example of this is the heating element; the defa item is made from a stainless steel and comes with replacement hoses for the install.

So, heating element is hose-type if it includes new hoses?

I'm now between electrical heater and webasto, I would like to have webasto but it might be too expensive.

mcfly · Post by **mcfly** » 19.11.2009 8:36

To clarify the element for the 140 hp pd motors dpf or without is a coolant inline heating system. The 170 hp pd is a radiant style heater that is attached to the exterior of the oil pan heating the oil. Which is probably why it was cheaper, but hey I don't care what type it is as long as it works good. I think defa has done there research to use the best type for each engine application. Wow, that sounded like I was a defa salesman. lol. It would seem the 170 hp install would be much more straight forward as there is no coolant to mess with. If I didn't have my warranty to worry about, I'd consider this an easy to medium d.i.y job. So quit reading and get on it!

mcfly · Post by **mcfly** » 19.11.2009 16:30

So I went this morning and had it installed. It took them 4 hours to complete the install. The defa site stated the approximate install time as 1 hr without the plug for heating the inside of the car as well. So it took them 3 hrs for that part!? Good thing I had I negotiated a flat rate of 100€. I am less than convinced it really took that long as I was waiting there while they did it and was walking around the building for some fresh air and glanced in the bay window into the garage and saw my car with the hood up but no one working on it.

Osku.T · Post by **Osku.T** » 19.11.2009 16:36

^welcome to finland