Earlier in the year I noticed that my Eberspächer HYDRONIC D5 auxiliary heater wasn’t working. As the weather was warming up, getting it fixed slid down the priority list.

A couple of weeks ago, during a trip to the Maze, the plastic t-piece from the fuel tank to both the fuel lift pump and the heater snapped.

Here I am fixing it in the field (I discovered that the outer diameter of the raised breather tubes is the same as the interior diameter of the fuel line). Thanks to Steve for the photo.

So as I need to refit the t-piece (with a brass one this time), I stared investigating the rest of the problem. Once I’d freed up the harness, I discovered that it has shorted and melted some of the wires together - never good. It also seems that there’s a fuse missing, that would have been easier to replace than the harness.

In the diagram below, you can see the part that failed. I need to replace both the plug and socket - it’s a tight 8-way connector.

Once I discovered that Eberspächer is called Espar in North America, I contacted their technical support and got the following part number: 22 1000 30 10 21 - which has to be ordered from a local dealer. I contacted Thermo King of Denver who ordered the part from Espar in Canada. I’m hoping the thing will be fixed before it really gets cold!

Espar D5 manual here Good install thread on D90.com here A Defender installation here