Pat Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 I am in the middle of fitting a defender bulkhead to my S3. Looking at the heater matrix which is past its best i was thinking of fitting a defenderone. It will obviously fit my defender bulkhead but are they any better than the series one. Has any ofitted one to a series before are the controls the same as the series one and which defender one do i get get. I seem to remember that they have two different matrices for the heater boxes. Are there any benefits for a particular type. PAt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon White Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Yes I've got the whole defender heater unit on my series. Just bear in mind that you cant just swap the matrix, as they're totally different sizes! Controls are more or less the same, but you need to use the defender control cables as the series ones arent long enough. The defender one also earths the opposite way to the series one, so you need to re-wire it else the fan will run backwards! (guess how i know!) When wired up the right way the defender one is alot better than the series one! Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 I'm going to fit a Defender heater unit in catflap Pat. I'd appreciate any info on how you did/do it please? Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon White Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Ok in depth techy style write up! Remove entire old series heater and blower assembly. (RTFM if you don't know how to do it). Also remove heater inlet vent from n/s wing. Remove n/s mud shield from under wing. Acquire entire defender heater/blower assembly. There are two types (one has the coolant inlet pipes straight, one has them kink at 90 degrees towards the ground) otherwise I believe they're all the same. You need to trim the top off the n/s bulkhead support bracket as it will foul the heater. You also need to trim a little off the return lip on the inner wing. I just trial fitted and trimmed a little at a time until it would go in. Top two bolts line up with the series ones so do them up. You need to drill through the bottom two holes and bolt it to the foot well. Re-connect coolant hoses. IIRC the standard series ones will still fit. I simply jammed the flap that controls the airflow open (on the defender there is a third cable attached to this which goes to the fan speed control also) as I didn't see the need for it. The hot/cold control cable needs to be a defender one as the series one is too short. Easy enough to swap over. I had to cut a hole in the mud shield to clear the bottom of the heater blower and then re-fitted it. I also then refitted the wing mounted grille. (it just fits, but could do with being slimmed down or even blanked off as its redundant. I found the heater sits very very close to the o/s carb elbow (mines a V8) so I clearanced the heater box with my favourite tool! You could fit the defender plastic gubbins and the wing top mounted grille, but I didn't bother - I simply put a grille over the air intake to stop too much cr@p getting in it! The only thing that may cause a problem is if you're still using the standard series rod type throttle linkage. Mines cable operated so the rods are long gone. Wiring wise you'll find there are three wires coming out of the unit IIRC. Theres a green or a green and yellow or something like that (the colours tie up with the series wiring) so just connect them to the series wiring. The third wire on the heater (purple IIRC) is a +ve in feed. Connect to and ignition +ve feed. You then need to re-wire the dash mounted switch as the series switches the positive power, and the defender switches the earth. Remove the positive feed into the fan switch and instead connect an earth feed to the switch. Your fan should now run the correct way! I think that's it..... Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 That's great, thanks Jon. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted May 10, 2007 Author Share Posted May 10, 2007 Tahnks for the information. All i need now is a heater unit Pat Ok in depth techy style write up!Remove entire old series heater and blower assembly. (RTFM if you don't know how to do it). Also remove heater inlet vent from n/s wing. Remove n/s mud shield from under wing. Acquire entire defender heater/blower assembly. There are two types (one has the coolant inlet pipes straight, one has them kink at 90 degrees towards the ground) otherwise I believe they're all the same. You need to trim the top off the n/s bulkhead support bracket as it will foul the heater. You also need to trim a little off the return lip on the inner wing. I just trial fitted and trimmed a little at a time until it would go in. Top two bolts line up with the series ones so do them up. You need to drill through the bottom two holes and bolt it to the foot well. Re-connect coolant hoses. IIRC the standard series ones will still fit. I simply jammed the flap that controls the airflow open (on the defender there is a third cable attached to this which goes to the fan speed control also) as I didn't see the need for it. The hot/cold control cable needs to be a defender one as the series one is too short. Easy enough to swap over. I had to cut a hole in the mud shield to clear the bottom of the heater blower and then re-fitted it. I also then refitted the wing mounted grille. (it just fits, but could do with being slimmed down or even blanked off as its redundant. I found the heater sits very very close to the o/s carb elbow (mines a V8) so I clearanced the heater box with my favourite tool! You could fit the defender plastic gubbins and the wing top mounted grille, but I didn't bother - I simply put a grille over the air intake to stop too much cr@p getting in it! The only thing that may cause a problem is if you're still using the standard series rod type throttle linkage. Mines cable operated so the rods are long gone. Wiring wise you'll find there are three wires coming out of the unit IIRC. Theres a green or a green and yellow or something like that (the colours tie up with the series wiring) so just connect them to the series wiring. The third wire on the heater (purple IIRC) is a +ve in feed. Connect to and ignition +ve feed. You then need to re-wire the dash mounted switch as the series switches the positive power, and the defender switches the earth. Remove the positive feed into the fan switch and instead connect an earth feed to the switch. Your fan should now run the correct way! I think that's it..... Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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