Defa Heaters... anyone had problems?

[Niggelest]

Evening All!!

Had a Defa heater fitted to the Patrol a few months ago, engine block heater - battery charger and cabin heater. All worked well, except the cabin heater falling off its mounts when off road...... until this morning.

Driving kids to school noticed temp gauge shot up after 7km. Luckily this was at the school house. Now I'm a bit fanatical about temperature having just had a full head replacement / rebuild after the thermostat failed a couple of months ago 27K eek and 2, yes TWO weeks at Nissan Rakvere.

Checked under the hood to find that the heater core plug had failed and I had lost nearly all my coolant.
Should get the truck back tomorrow if all goes well, but installers think that this might not be covered under guarantee, so could be in for a fight.
Just wondered if anyone had experienced similar problems with Defa gear?

Cheers

Niggel

[KimmoL]

If it is the heater core plug, then surely that's covered by guarantee. If the Nissan people put it in, they should be able to guarantee that it stays in place. Not knowing more about the incident, I would say that it's simply sloppy work. Particularly considering that your truck spent two weeks with them -- that's more than enough to read the installation manual.

But yes, you could be in for a fight. In these parts, people are not very willing to admit their mistakes.

Concerning the heater make, I don't think it has anything to do with your problem. I have had Defa's in at least four cars (not 4x4's though) and none of them had any faults, installation or operation-wise.

[Niggelest]

Hi KimmoL,

Thanks 4 the interest. Just to fill you in, the Defa system was not installed by Nissan, they just did the head replacement.
Speaking on the phone to the installers today, they suggested that the core heater unit had burned out due to lack of coolant
I had checked coolant level the day before as an on going check on the head replacement, plus if the coolant level was so low that the heater coil burned out the vehicle would have overheated VERY much sooner.
Out of interest, was told when i got the system that it had 6months warranty on parts and labour.
Will tell you how i get later tomorrow, will also post who fitted if there is a warranty problem

Cheers

Nigel

[jr]

WTF!? Defa burns out, when there is no coolant? Points to sloppy work if You ask me. They probably did'nt clean out the bore well before they inserted the heater unit and relaid too much on the good old silicon

[Niggelest]

Hi All

Well got the truck back today. Turns out that it looks like core heater plug malfunctioned! One of the external elements had burned through, looked like someone had put a welding rod to it, at least halfway through. Supplier said that they had never seen anything like it, and were returning the part to Defa for analysis.

On the up side, suppliers Auto Techinca Rakvere did the replacement f.o.c. and that included recovering the truck, so top marks to them!, well done boys!!

Cheers

Nigel

[KimmoL]

Glad it turned out so well! One less thing to worry about. How's your head replacement coming along?

[Niggelest]

Hi KimmoL,
Don't want 2 put the pox on it, so far so good! Replacement head has been on for a couple of months, and despite small oil leak around 5, 6 cylinder end, ok. Not sure the Nissian boys followed the tightening procedure
properly, but seems to have bedded in now. Need to get the power washer on this weekend to see if its still leaking, to much crap and dust at the moment to know.

Here's what the old head looked like







Cheers

Nigel