ajsellors
A2OC Donor
Hi,
I have just fixed the heat control flap on the climate control in my car. This is my experience so that it can be of assistance to others.
The heating was stuck on full heat after I had reassembled the car after some major work (including having the dash out). Performing the flap calibration which sends the motors to each end of the travel in turn didn't resolve anything although having used the car this morning, the heating was now stuck on cold! The climate control unit was reporting faults for the motor being "Blocked or No Voltage" and also the "Potentiometer adaptation" being out of range.
The heat control flap is driven by motor V68 which is the lower of the two on the passenger side to the right of the air blower fan and the pollen filter. This motor and the windscreen air control flap motor which is mounted above are fitted into a carrier.
I found it was actually possible and easy to remove the motor carrier without taking the dash out.
First, the glove box has to be removed which means taking off the passenger sill trim and then the glove box itself.
This reveals the air blower and the vent outlet for the passenger foot well:
The motors are behind the vent so it has to be removed for access. The vent is secured by one screw (left circle) and plugs into the outlet pipe so can be withdrawn by pulling to the left. As its a tight squeeze I removed the dash screw (right circle) to make more room.
Once the vent is removed, the motor carrier can be seen. Its secured by two clips (circled) at the front and two pins which fit into holes on lugs at the rear (towards the front of the car).
Once the two blue electrical connectors are unplugged and the wires moved out the way, the motor carrier is simply released by squeezing each of the two clips in turn. Once the clips are released, the front can be moved to the left to release the gears and then slightly outwards (towards the rear of the car) to release the pins from the holes. The carrier can then be extracted downwards.
In my case there was nothing wrong with my motor. Some how the gears had ended up misaligned with one end of the travel of the motor being engaged with the opposite end of the travel of the flap. This prevented the motor from moving in either direction.
Refitting the motors with the gears correctly aligned fixed it and after another flap calibration the heat control works and the faults haven't returned.
Aligning the gears properly however is quite tricky. The lower heat control flap will "fall down" under its own weight when not engaged with the motor and that's where mine was when the motor was at the top of the travel initially. The lower gears can be seen and accessed so can be easily aligned. The upper gears however cannot be easily seen. I needed to use an endoscope camera to see what was going on and prod the gears with a screwdriver to move them into the right place.
Refitting the motor carrier involves engaging the two pins into the holes at the front of the car and then hinging the carrier towards the centre console to engage the gears and the retaining clips. To align the pins I had to get my head into the foot well so I could look up with a torch and see that the upper pin was engaging properly.
Once the pins holding the carrier are in place, the gears must be properly aligned. The gears have alignment indicators which ensure that they are fitted correctly. On one gear near the end of the toothed section is a cut out in the teeth which should match up on the other gear with a ridge. Once aligned the motors should be seen to run end to end with the ends of the gears matching up at the limits of the travel. To move the motors into a position which made it easy to align with the flaps I had to use the controls on the climate unit to start the motor moving and then switch off the ignition when the motor was in the position I wanted it to be.
With the wires reconnected and clipped in place, the vent outlet can be plugged back in and the screws replaced.
It is fiddly to align the gears and having the dash off would probably make the upper gear easier to do but taking the dash off is a big job and it is possible to do much quicker without having to. As I had just had the dash off and only had the fault afterwards, I also didn't want to have to do it again
As to how my gears managed to get into this position? I'm not sure, I only drove the car once beforehand so probably would have not noticed a problem but there also wasn't a fault logged to start with. I did change the climate control unit for another second hand one (hard touch finish so no worn buttons). It may have been a different motor calibration from the car in which the climate control unit was in previously that caused my motor to drive off the end of the gear and so end up misaligned.
regards
Andrew
I have just fixed the heat control flap on the climate control in my car. This is my experience so that it can be of assistance to others.
The heating was stuck on full heat after I had reassembled the car after some major work (including having the dash out). Performing the flap calibration which sends the motors to each end of the travel in turn didn't resolve anything although having used the car this morning, the heating was now stuck on cold! The climate control unit was reporting faults for the motor being "Blocked or No Voltage" and also the "Potentiometer adaptation" being out of range.
The heat control flap is driven by motor V68 which is the lower of the two on the passenger side to the right of the air blower fan and the pollen filter. This motor and the windscreen air control flap motor which is mounted above are fitted into a carrier.
I found it was actually possible and easy to remove the motor carrier without taking the dash out.
First, the glove box has to be removed which means taking off the passenger sill trim and then the glove box itself.
This reveals the air blower and the vent outlet for the passenger foot well:
The motors are behind the vent so it has to be removed for access. The vent is secured by one screw (left circle) and plugs into the outlet pipe so can be withdrawn by pulling to the left. As its a tight squeeze I removed the dash screw (right circle) to make more room.
Once the vent is removed, the motor carrier can be seen. Its secured by two clips (circled) at the front and two pins which fit into holes on lugs at the rear (towards the front of the car).
Once the two blue electrical connectors are unplugged and the wires moved out the way, the motor carrier is simply released by squeezing each of the two clips in turn. Once the clips are released, the front can be moved to the left to release the gears and then slightly outwards (towards the rear of the car) to release the pins from the holes. The carrier can then be extracted downwards.
In my case there was nothing wrong with my motor. Some how the gears had ended up misaligned with one end of the travel of the motor being engaged with the opposite end of the travel of the flap. This prevented the motor from moving in either direction.
Refitting the motors with the gears correctly aligned fixed it and after another flap calibration the heat control works and the faults haven't returned.
Aligning the gears properly however is quite tricky. The lower heat control flap will "fall down" under its own weight when not engaged with the motor and that's where mine was when the motor was at the top of the travel initially. The lower gears can be seen and accessed so can be easily aligned. The upper gears however cannot be easily seen. I needed to use an endoscope camera to see what was going on and prod the gears with a screwdriver to move them into the right place.
Refitting the motor carrier involves engaging the two pins into the holes at the front of the car and then hinging the carrier towards the centre console to engage the gears and the retaining clips. To align the pins I had to get my head into the foot well so I could look up with a torch and see that the upper pin was engaging properly.
Once the pins holding the carrier are in place, the gears must be properly aligned. The gears have alignment indicators which ensure that they are fitted correctly. On one gear near the end of the toothed section is a cut out in the teeth which should match up on the other gear with a ridge. Once aligned the motors should be seen to run end to end with the ends of the gears matching up at the limits of the travel. To move the motors into a position which made it easy to align with the flaps I had to use the controls on the climate unit to start the motor moving and then switch off the ignition when the motor was in the position I wanted it to be.
With the wires reconnected and clipped in place, the vent outlet can be plugged back in and the screws replaced.
It is fiddly to align the gears and having the dash off would probably make the upper gear easier to do but taking the dash off is a big job and it is possible to do much quicker without having to. As I had just had the dash off and only had the fault afterwards, I also didn't want to have to do it again
As to how my gears managed to get into this position? I'm not sure, I only drove the car once beforehand so probably would have not noticed a problem but there also wasn't a fault logged to start with. I did change the climate control unit for another second hand one (hard touch finish so no worn buttons). It may have been a different motor calibration from the car in which the climate control unit was in previously that caused my motor to drive off the end of the gear and so end up misaligned.
regards
Andrew
