Aluminium heater inlet & outlet coming away from plastic vent.

[DaveCrampton]

Hi.

I fitted a diesel heater late last year. The inside outlet plastic cover keeps coming away from the aluminium heater outlet hose. I checked the inlet vent in the driver's footwell, which appears to have come away too.

They are held on with a jubilee ring.

Any ideas how to stop this disconnection? Should I be putting something like silver heater tape on?

The inlet is a pita as I need to remove the underside panel to gain access...

Thanks.

 

[Dellmassive]

Got some pics?

Did you replace the jubilee clips?, As some times the supplied ones are sub standard. (Ie cheap Chinese copies).

 

[DaveCrampton]

Hi Dell.

I don't have pictures unfortunately as I'm away from home. Original jubilee clips. They did tighten onto the plastic vent, but I was reluctant to overtighten incase I buckled the vent.

It's the aluminium tube, fitted over the circular plastic vents with the vehicle body between and a jubilee clip tightened over the aluminium tube.

Just wondering if it's a common problem

Cheers!

 

[Dellmassive]

Sure...

@oldiebut goodie may be able to offer some advice?

 

[DaveCrampton]

 

[DaveCrampton]

It's quite smooth and slippery on the plastic tube the aluminium tightens over. Might look for something which won't melt but can be stuck to the plastic to tighten onto.

 

[Oldrat]

Perhaps run a hot air gun (even an hot knive?) around the edges to create a small lip?

Do it with gentle heat else the lip will be brittle and just snap away

 

[DaveCrampton]

I'll try that, many thanks. I hadn't thought of trying to rough up the smooth surface.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

I oil the jubilee clip threads before fitting, sometimes you think that you have tightened it but all you are feeling is the friction of the screw. Crank it up! You will be hard pressed to overtighten and distort it.

 

[Oldrat]

If you are worried about the small amount of plastic pipe protruding, you could always try this solution.

Obtain a plastic pipe of a larger diameter and about 4” (?) long.
Cut along the length
Gently heat the pipe and overlap the cut edges
Press in to reduce the diameter to match that of the fixed plastic pipe
Mark and cut off the excess
Superglue the edges together

You should now have a small length of pipe which fits perfectly inside your fixed pipe.

You can now bugger about to your hearts content with whatever connections you wish. Discard and start again if you muck those connections up.

Glue in place once sorted

 

[oldiebut goodie]

I notice that you haven't screwed the vent to the board, that will not help if you have a lot of movement there. ( The outer portion of the vent just snaps off to access the screw holes if you didn't know )
Also it looks like you didn't stretch the ducting out before fitting - it looks like it is still in its original compressed state.

 

[DaveCrampton]

Ah, I was wondering how I could fix the vent to the board.

I have a feeling teenagers might have kicked it off the first couple of times, but was unsure when the driver's footwell vent also rotated as if detached from the tube.