Thanks for the explanation Zircoblue.
The only weird thing was I had driven for an hour and the car was at temperature.
Then I stopped 5 mins to fill up the car.
Then drove 1 min home and pulled up in front of my garage.
It was then when it happened.
The temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius.

Last edited by Blade74 on 13th Jul 2015 12:24pm. Edited 1 time in total

It's a quirk of the FBH, sometimes when you do a short run in cold weather the FBH will kick in to warm up the car and engine, but when you then stop the FBH carries on to burn off any remaining diesel in the heater. That's when you're most likely to get the smoke and smell. It usually comes from the FBH exhaust which is located under the front passenger side wheel arch (Left hand side of vehicle if you've got a Right hand drive motor).
It can be somewhat disconcerting at first, but you will get used to it. It can also cause amusement when other people see it and think your car is about to go up in flames!!

Spotted the front wheel smoke this morning from my newly-acquired 4.4 TDV8 after a short run with the temperature around 8 deg C. The Topix build info show park heater not fitted which I had previously interpreted as FBH not fitted, but apparently not so, just the park heater function not available. I wasn't aware of the distinction.

Can the FBH be disabled?

Why would you want to disable it? It warms the engine up faster so your cabin heats faster and also gives you a small fuel saving as a result.

You should be able to activate the park heating function though, probably even add the remote control too.

Its never cold enough to warrant the embarrassment of the vehicle emitting smoke from around the engine in public. FBHs are not generally fitted to Oz vehicles so no-one knows the explanation and a well-meaning person may call the fire brigade thinking the vehicle is on fire.

It will usually smoke only the first few times it fires up for the winter, and if it hasn't been used for a while. It won't/shouldn't smoke as a matter of course.

During the winter my Fbh on the disco fires every morning and never smokes. When I enabled the remote function on it I had the guys at the garage re initialise it and it filled the garage with smoke! Not smoked since! There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

The FBH can be pretty embarrassing - it strikes me as the most ridiculous and archaic solution to the problem for such an expensive and supposedly advanced car

I have diesel "central heating" in my VW California camper - it neither smokes or smells or embarrasses me

GraemeS wrote:

Its never cold enough to warrant the embarrassment of the vehicle emitting smoke from around the engine in public. FBHs are not generally fitted to Oz vehicles so no-one knows the explanation and a well-meaning person may call the fire brigade thinking the vehicle is on fire.

I'd say the same in the UK, they're fairly rare in passenger cars, and with those that do have them, i'd bet few of the owners even know they do. Really only common in scandinavian countries and eastern europe i would think. But i've never seen a news report of someone's car being mistakenly dowsed by the fire brigade in the UK, given all the Diesel range rovers have them, i'd expect to see plenty of news stories about it if it were the case. Unless random car fires are a big problem down your way i don' think i'd worry about it.

If you get the remote for it and activate it you'll also be able to make use of the remote vent function - gets fresh air circulating before you get in the car.

CEEGEE wrote:

The FBH can be pretty embarrassing - it strikes me as the most ridiculous and archaic solution to the problem for such an expensive and supposedly advanced car

I have diesel "central heating" in my VW California camper - it neither smokes or smells or embarrasses me

^ I would say so Boat heaters , Truck heaters and car heaters all usually Webasto .No competition bar a few small time players . 2008 MY Supercharged
Rimini Red / Jet
four zone climate
remote park heater
and no ugly kid windows.
magnus satis quod turpis satis

Eberspacher are their main competitor. Cab heaters are normally either Webasto or Eberspacher, i wouldn't call Eberspacher small time though.

They are all basically the same technology and generally put out a puff of fumes when started from cold, the same as a car engine does. It's hardly ultra new technology, but i'm not sure what other tech they could use to provide parking heating - a small nuclear reactor perhaps?

Total brain fade
I have been building and skippering boats nearly all my life and Eberspacher completely fell out of my head there , in fact I have even been doing some research on them because both the 5kw and 10kw central heaters on my dad's boat are giving trouble . 2008 MY Supercharged
Rimini Red / Jet
four zone climate
remote park heater
and no ugly kid windows.
magnus satis quod turpis satis