Guys, Our newly aquired 2003 Voyagr SE 2.5TD is making a very strange noise. I can best describe it as a clock ticking......thus the ticking bomb punt above. It seems to tick at differing speeds regardless if the vehicle is stationary or moving. It sounds like it is coming from directly underneath the handbrake..................has anyone got any ideas what this is and how I stop it as its driving me and the missus loony!!!!

Cheers....tick,tick,tick,tick.........Andy, Mancheste in England

 

Here, you still alive, your not a wanted man are you, someone who has soldiers into Iraq....
Under handbrake....you got an engine Preheater..
Goggs.

 

Has anyone else had a ticking engine pre heater??

 

Hi, But have you got a Pre-Heater, Auxiliary Heater for heating engine coolant...All the voyagers don't have one. Got pictures of a stripped down one.
Goggs..

 

The plot thickens.... after turning the cars engine off there is a noise coming from under the car (again beneath the hand brake area) that can best be described as someone hoovering! I've had a look under the car and there is a quite large flat unit in that area with pipes and what looks like a motor plumbed into it... ..is this a preheater and if so how does it work and when should it work? Are these noises normal or is is kaputt?

 

Ill photo the unit in a bit and post up pics! The clicking inside and the hoovering underneath are very annoying... if it is the pre heater can it be removed or disabled without effecting the car or causing an engine warning light to flash up?

 

A noise (ticking and hoovering!) is normal if the car has been running a short time. Its part of the cool down cycle of the aux heater. (few mins)
Providing the engine gets up to temp, the aux heater switches off after about 10mins of driving. (indicated by the light on top dash)

 

Ah. ...that could be the problem. ...we don't get a light on the dash and the car never seems to get past 1/4 of the way up the temp gauge! ! I wonder if a previous owner had thermostat problems and gutted the thermostat out of the housing. ...thus why the cars not reaching half way up the temp gauge (which I'm guessing is normal operating temp? ) . Can this pre heater unit be deactivated? I can't really see any point in having it on the car ...lol

 

Pre-Heater .. .. IT SOUNDS MORE LIKE AN auxiliary HEATER

- if you live near me I'll deactivate it for free
- then you will not see my heels for dust
- with loom and controller they're about £1000

- its costs about 12p per hour at full chat
- you'll be lucky if it runs a whole hour on any one winters day
- the tick tick tick is the mini fuel pump
- the fan like whirring noise is the fuel bowl emptying at / after shut down

NOTE : You would not want to, but, you could run this auxiliary heater on red-diesel in the UK

 

New thermostat mate. Plenty of posts on this forum (common to be stuck open)
Complete in housing, about £65 on ebay. Few hours to change