The Good, the Bad the Webasto ....

[Ray Davis]

Nice job Webasto Kings

Mango, you remain the king! We are but your humble students!

[MangoMike]

As a final check before we were going to leave town to ski in West Virginia, dry camping, I decided to check the Webasto.

Of course it wouldn't fire.

Naturally my wife chimes in with "so what's the problem, you're the Webasto king". Yes dear.

Fuel was flowing, the blower motor was working, the nozzle was new so the only thing missing was the starting spark.

I decided to remove the coil (Webasto calls it the Electronic Ignition Unit) to apply power directly to see if I could get a spark.

coiltop_1504_2.jpg
Electronic Ignition Unit

This is what I discovered on the bottom side, hid from view.

coil_5074.jpg
Somehow it self destructed from the inside out. No workie here.


From the manual:
ignition.jpg

I'm going to call Webasto to see if they have any idea what caused the failure. And I wish I had tested the unit a day earlier, I could have had the part before I left town.

The Webasto is a pretty basic unit, so don't be shy in doing some basic examination work if it doesn't fire.

... and the camping. We had to rely on the electric baseboard heat. Thank you Prevo for multiple systems.


Mike

[Ray Davis]

Kevin Erion's webasto had a bad coil. Kevin spoke with a repairman who indicated to put 12(24) volts directly across the wires of the coil, and to do this 200 times. IF it failed even once, to replace the unit.

The unit was replaced, and last report from Kevin was that it's working great. Good news is that it's trivial to replace.

No clue as to why it would self destruct like your picture!

Ray

[MangoMike]

I talked with Webasto headquarters (1-800-555-4518, 1 - tech help/ Tracy) in Michigan today and here's their response.

Tracy, the longtime tech, has never seen a coil failure like this (I sent him the email photo).

We suspect that since webasto was never used by the previous California owner that one of the three mini relays inside of the "brain" controller unit was sticking from lack of use. I had a problem previously with the fan blower inside the unit not shutting down after it's cool down period and had to depower the Webasto to get it shut down. One of the those three relays control that blower the other one controls the ignition coil (which only works for a few seconds while the unit is starting) and the third controls the coolant pump.

If this relay to the coil did stick it wouldn't take long to fry the inside of that coil according to the tech.

I've already ordered a new coil, ($228 part # 101 846 for the 24v version) but now will order the brain as I don't want to take chance of that relay (if that's the problem) sticking again and burning up another coil.

Mike

Ray,

I can't image Kevin taking the time to test that coil 200 times. Although he is an anal detail guy, he would just write the check and replace it.

[Ray Davis]

I can't image Kevin taking the time to test that coil 200 times. Although he is an anal detail guy, he would just write the check and replace it.

I don't think he had to test even a dozen times. His Webasto would fail to fire 24 out of 25 tries! I believe his test immediately showed the unit to be bad.

Ray

[Jerry Winchester]

Between the new coil and a new brain you better sell some more jerked chicken this week. I think the brain is the most expensive part on the whole unit. Or at least of the parts I have bought. So far.

[Kevin Erion]

201 times tested before I cut loose with the cash! We get back to the run at least once a month rule, Mr Webasco King!