sprinterdiscovery
Active member
The original Espar D2 blower was replaced today due to motor brush failure after a total runtime of 3,551 hours since new, in just 33 months of operation.
Even before the previous full service, the fan sounded a bit different than normal. It seemed to run at normal speed, then slow down for a brief second, then resume the normal speed.
This past week it has been -10c, and the heater has been running almost non-stop to keep everything warm inside. Yesterday was the first day that the heater actually stopped, red light on, with a fault code of 31, which means there is a blower motor interruption. One of the diagnostic hints is that worn motor brushes can give intermittent connections that do not show up when checking resistance of the motor of roughly 0.5 ohms. Brushes are most likely the reason for this problem.
Overnight I ran the heater once again, but sometime in the middle of the night it just stopped, leaving many things inside the van very cold. I removed things like the toilet, water containers, and the Goal Zero battery.
I tried turning on the heater once again in the morning, and it worked for about 90 minutes before there was a strange smell inside the van and the heater stopped once again, but with a code of 33 meaning the blower is not rotating or rotating at the wrong speed. Again, this error points to blower brushes being worn out. The heater refused to start after that.
I called up Cool-It in Abbotsford, and they had an aftermarket Espar D2 blower available for CAD$279.00. I picked that up, along with a spare set of blower and burner gaskets and an ignition screen for the next service.
From leaving the house to picking up the parts, driving home, removing the heater, replacing the blower, reinstalling it took a total of only 5 hours. Actual remove and replace was about 2.5 hours.
Since the replacement blower is not an original Espar, rather an aftermarket, the fit is not exact - I had to take a dremel and remove about 1mm from both sides of the ECU plastic protrusions. The mounting hole then lined up properly and the plastic clip engaged as well. I used the same blower gasket from the previous service.
Tested the heater, and it now blows strong and is consistent in its sound as well. Let's hope for another 3 years of good service!
For those with Espar's, how often have you had to replace the blower motor? Is it common to only last 3-4,000 hours?
Even before the previous full service, the fan sounded a bit different than normal. It seemed to run at normal speed, then slow down for a brief second, then resume the normal speed.
This past week it has been -10c, and the heater has been running almost non-stop to keep everything warm inside. Yesterday was the first day that the heater actually stopped, red light on, with a fault code of 31, which means there is a blower motor interruption. One of the diagnostic hints is that worn motor brushes can give intermittent connections that do not show up when checking resistance of the motor of roughly 0.5 ohms. Brushes are most likely the reason for this problem.
Overnight I ran the heater once again, but sometime in the middle of the night it just stopped, leaving many things inside the van very cold. I removed things like the toilet, water containers, and the Goal Zero battery.
I tried turning on the heater once again in the morning, and it worked for about 90 minutes before there was a strange smell inside the van and the heater stopped once again, but with a code of 33 meaning the blower is not rotating or rotating at the wrong speed. Again, this error points to blower brushes being worn out. The heater refused to start after that.
I called up Cool-It in Abbotsford, and they had an aftermarket Espar D2 blower available for CAD$279.00. I picked that up, along with a spare set of blower and burner gaskets and an ignition screen for the next service.
From leaving the house to picking up the parts, driving home, removing the heater, replacing the blower, reinstalling it took a total of only 5 hours. Actual remove and replace was about 2.5 hours.
Since the replacement blower is not an original Espar, rather an aftermarket, the fit is not exact - I had to take a dremel and remove about 1mm from both sides of the ECU plastic protrusions. The mounting hole then lined up properly and the plastic clip engaged as well. I used the same blower gasket from the previous service.
Tested the heater, and it now blows strong and is consistent in its sound as well. Let's hope for another 3 years of good service!
For those with Espar's, how often have you had to replace the blower motor? Is it common to only last 3-4,000 hours?
