Jyoung,
Indeed the post is stamped 21/06. My smart charger has dropped from 4 amps to 2 but is still in the process of ramming electrons into the battery. It is a group 49 battery and the local parts place had an AGM style for $176. It wasn't a complete bitch to reach (relative to the ^$&# turbo controllers) so pending on the outcome of the charge cycle I may opt for the new battery as a matter of preventative maintenance - something I don't typically do. I just know that some vehicles (my Triumph motorcycles for example) that tend to act up with other than a real fresh battery.
Uwe,
You noticed the same thing I did about the aux heat as I watched the scan come together. I had no idea that any new car had that system, let alone this one. Edit: Oh, and there are fixed rails running longitudinally where our trade in had the grooves running front to back and I mounted my Thule rack to those grooves for hauling kayaks.
When I fueled up the other day I did notice a sticker (in german, super handy for gringos) under the gas door telling you to turn off the aux heat when fueling. I know just enough German to know to keep my mouth shut and recognized the word Webasto or Eberspacher, which are name brands of aux heaters from Germany, and enough text to understand the direction to shut it off. I just went out to see what it said, but with the system battery on my workbench that door isn't coming open for a while.
In my old diesel Vanagon (there, I said it), it came with the aux heat but the one time I pushed the button it produced huge clouds of smoke and I thought the car was on fire. When I read up on the Ebersparcher heater I learned that it can produce a flame nearly 20' long when malfunctioning. Needless to say I never pushed the button again.
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Then years later I lived on a 53' sailboat with a dingbat woman and it had an Eberspacher heater. I first became acquainted with it when it malfunctioned (about the only thing they do well). The bearings in the blower were toast and the intake impeller had come loose. I sourced new bearings for $25 and bonded the intake impeller on with JB weld and a really cool trick with a couple of business cards to lock in the exact gap required. Needless to say that heater shit the bed every year and needed something else. At one point we had a guy on board that took a look at the ducting and told us that who ever installed it did a poor job of designing the layout and that it was likely back pressure that was causing the unit to overwork. Using his advice we redid the ducting and that furnace was actually pretty reliable after that.
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