I'm including here multiple responses from Espar in Canada (when I was trying to find the correct PN for the glowplug above) showing their attitude toward support of the heaters originally installed in our Sprinters. They're shown in chronological order - earliest first.
- "The heater installed on your vehicle is not ESPAR heater, but it is a proprietary heater of Mercedes and it is being supported by vehicle manufacturer through their dealers. ESPAR does not import and support this heater as it is not available for us."
- "Mercedes is the only right place for this heater because they own this project (it is their property) and they took responsibility for full support. ESPAR does not have access to those heaters. Normally I do not advise customers to invest money into repair of Sprinter heater and advise to buy a new one from us with full support.
There is a good chance that our gaskets and glow pin are the same but I cannot guarantee this as my access level to Ebershpacher system was not enough to get information about Mercedes parts to see substitution for discontinued ones. Freightliner and TK are our dealers so they do not have access to Mercedes proprietary parts too.
From my side I will send a request to my contact in Germany regarding your heater but can not say in advance if my efforts regarding Mercedes parts are going to be more fruitful than Mercedes efforts."
- "I probably was not clear regarding situation with Sprinter heater. Sprinter heater is produced by Ebershpacher Germany for Mercedes and it is property of Mercedes. Canadian ESPAR is a different company and neither Ebershpacher nor Mercedes have arrangements with us to support this heater.
On the other hand, Freightliner is one of our dealers only for heaters and parts we import or produce in North America and we supply it with heaters in parts but we do not have Sprinter heater in our list (nor for sale neither for support), which again, is property of Mercedes and we do not have access to it or it's specific parts and have very limited access to documentation. You may buy parts from our dealers if they fit into your heater, but official support to you must come only from Mercedes for now. We always try to assist Sprinter owners as much as we can but we still can not stick too deep into a project which is not our property."
These are all from a person whose title is: "Technical Services Supervisor".
My take on this is that Espar and Thermo King (gets parts through Espar) are less than enthusiastically supporting Sprinter heaters. I did try to get parts from Freightliner (2 dealers) and Mercedes (2 dealers), but was told by the US dealers I contacted that the gaskets I needed were no longer available (was able to get them through the Thermo King/Espar connection). Also, the exploded parts diagram used by the Freightliner/Mercedes parts people also depicted the wrong glowplug, so I probably would have received the wrong plug from them as well.
