Changing G263 Evaporator outlet temperature sender without removing the dash

ajsellors

A2OC Donor
Hi,

today I changed the G263 evaporator outlet temperature sender on my A/C to restore the ice cool air.
I did it without taking the dash off. Here is how:

The first task was to locate the sensor. On LHD cars it is on the driver's side above the temperature and windscreen demister flap motors. Although the centre of the climate unit is mostly the same on RHD cars, it turns out that the G263 sensor is on the other side, again on the driver's side. That makes it above the V70 central flap motor.

This picture shows the position of the G263 sensor on the driver's side of the climate unit.

DSC03507b.jpg

To gain access I removed the trim panel above the pedals.

The central flap motor is flush against a metal bracket which holds the climate unit in position on the driver's side.
This bracket must be moved to the right (towards the clutch pedal) to allow the V70 motor to be unclipped and disengaged.
To do this I removed the 3 bolts indicated in the following photo. The third topmost bolt was removed as it fouled the motor bracket fixing clip.
These were removed using a 10mm ring spanner.
On the lower and rear side of the bracket where it attaches to the side of the climate unit, I loosened the two screws using an 8mm ring spanner. I didn't remove the screws completely as they are very close to the clutch pedal and it would have been difficult to refit them afterwards.
I then pulled the top of the bracket away from the central flap motor, disengaging it from the two pins. The other loosened screws allowed it to hinge in place.

DSC03523b.jpg

Once the bracket was out of the way, I set up the climate controls to close the footwall and vent airflow flaps. This puts the V70 motor in a position that makes it easy to re-engage on reassembly.

I unplugged the electrical connector and unclipped the wire and moved it out of the way. The motor is attached by two lugs engaged with holes towards the front of the car and a single clip on the back. The clip is released by squeezing the tab and the motor can then be moved away from the side of the climate unit and withdrawn downwards.

The wires to the G263 sensor are clipped onto the top of the V70 motor's fixing bracket. Unfortunately there is no way to access this from underneath to unclip them so I had to pull the motor down hard to break the clip and free the motor. The clip isn't very strong and breaks easily.

This exposes the G263 sensor as shown in this photo. The photo also shows the leavers and pins which travel inside the slots of the V70 motor's drive wheel.

DSC03524b.jpg

The electrical connector on the G263 sensor was removed by squeezing the release tabs at the wire end of the connector together. Access is difficult so I had to push the bottom tab up with a screwdriver while pulling the top one down with my hand.

Once the connector is out of the way, the sensor comes out easily and is passed through the adjacent hole in the metal bracket. The sensor was then withdrawn and removed past the brake servo actuator rod and down behind the pedals.

The G263 sensor has a bend which should point downwards when fitted.

DSC03521.jpg

Reassembly is simply the reverse process.

The new sensor was passed back up behind the pedals and inserted into the climate unit and the electrical connector reattached.

Next and the most difficult bit was to refit the V70 central flap motor. The motor must be put back in place and the two lugs engaged. Doing so however moves the flap leavers so they must be repositioned so that they engage with the correct groves in the drive wheel. The lower lever has to be pushed upwards to close the footwell flaps and the upper leaver pulled down to close the vent flaps. I found I had to hook the top leaver with some wire and pull down hard to get it to engage properly in the groove when clipping the motor back in place. The first time I tried it missed and ended up higher than the wheel which meant that the vents were always open, no-matter what position the motor was in.

Once the V70 motor was correctly in position and the motor's electrical connector attached and wires clipped in position, the metal bracket was moved back into position on the top locating pins and all bolts replaced and screws tightened.

Refitting the trim panels completes the job!

All done, it took 2 1/2 hours to complete. This included some head scratching to find the best way to unplug the connector and also to find something to be used to hook the flap leaver and move it into position.

regards

Andrew
 
That's great! This will be so useful to others who develop this fault on their A2! It also indicates that you shouldn't take for Gospel what Audi Dealerships (Or others) tell you! (That is, that the dash does have to come out!) They did such a poor job on my car, removing the dash, that I know I'll have to do it all again .... the dash is not properly located and creaks and squeaks! Well done for your initiative!

David
 
Great work and thanks for sharing the guide. I'm sure it will be of great benefit to myself and other members in the future!

Cheers Rob.
 
Andrew you are a credit to this club. I can envisage a steady queue forming at your front door,...

Maybe you should consider offering this service, I'm sure many would be happy to pay?!
 
Being a total dunce, why did you change this... can I presume your climate was not cold?

I had mine regassed, but it's made no real difference, wondering if this is something I need to do??

bba

PS, great post, cheers!
 
Being a total dunce, why did you change this... can I presume your climate was not cold?

I had mine regassed, but it's made no real difference, wondering if this is something I need to do??

bba

PS, great post, cheers!

Hi bba,

This sensor is usually changed due to it becoming faulty and picked up during a scan.

If it's only this sensor at fault there is usually still cold air but the compressor will not be working at 100%.

Cheers

Jeff
 
Hello,

Just a quick piece of feedback to this thread.

I have just finished replacing the G263 sensor on my car, thanks to the brilliant instructions provided by ajsellors at the start of this thread. The instructions and pictures are perfect for doing the job, there's no way that I would have been able to change the sensor without them.

I completed the task over 3 nights after work, meaning my total time for the replacement was around double what ajsellors took, in effect 5 hours. The most time consuming part was removing the bolts required to move the bracket near the V70 motor, there is very little access around the 3 10mm bolts, and even less around the two 8mm bolts. One of which, the rearmost bolt, took approximately 90 minutes to find and undo sufficiently.

The fault code relating to the G263 sensor (00818) has now been cleared, and the vent outlet temperature is now around 3 degrees, according to VCDS.

I will admit, I struggled doing this, fingers and hands were very achey from the tight and awkward positions where the sensor is. I would do it again if I had to, but I would only recommend doing it to others if you feel you are competent with how trim is attached and have plenty of tools to remove parts.

Many thanks to ajsellors once again.

Regards,
Matt.
 
Just joined to add that based on the excellent photo's in this thread I attacked the G263 sensor before Christmas.

I found that by after removing the footwear panel, brake and clutch switches, there was just enough room to ram my hand up and pull the sensor out by hand, then disconnect the connector, all through the aluminium panel. Half hour job in total, and back to full cold air!

This said it was fiddly and you can't see what you're doing when you do it. I found a mirror on a stick was useful to line the new sensor up when installing. It also hurt like he'll pushing my hand into the pointy clutch switch bracket, a bit of foam helped. Smaller hands would be better!
 
Thanks ever so much for your COMPREHENSIVE (!) input.

Did I read somewhere that you found initially a loose connection caused the intermittent red hot air
instead of cool? If so , was the connection to the G263 loose or was it elsewhere?

Regards,

David
 
Hello all,

Thanks Spike for pointing me to this.

Has anyone else managed this minimal tear down approach used by Ndg?

Do you need hands like a jellyfish?

Alex


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Just a bump to see if anyone else has had this problem and managed a more acceptable solution than the dash-out.

Or perhaps I am over thinking the issue. Maybe the sensor isn't really a problem - just a bit of steamy screen now and then.


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Rob and Marcus from WOM did mine using that method (no dash out).

Didn't report any problems doing it that way. I asked them to do it because I heard it can be a tight space to manoeuvre into and I'm not exactly the smallest chap.
 
Rob and Marcus from WOM did mine using that method (no dash out).

Didn't report any problems doing it that way. I asked them to do it because I heard it can be a tight space to manoeuvre into and I'm not exactly the smallest chap.

Thank you DarkHorse.

I'm not tiny but I am skint/cheap so I think I'll give it a go... once I get someone to sell me a replacement of course!


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Thanks. Will do.

Don't expect anything soon - I'm still trying to find the section on Elsawin which shows how to remove the trim bits under the steering wheel or around the footwell.

I did find the centre tunnel though so feeling good about that.


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I went out today to change the evaporator sensor using ndg"s method. But didn't get very far at all, completely failing to remove the footwell trim I removed the one bolt that I could see holding on the trim, but couldn't work out how to remove it. Can anyone give me some clues? Please!
 
I went out today to change the evaporator sensor using ndg"s method. But didn't get very far at all, completely failing to remove the footwell trim I removed the one bolt that I could see holding on the trim, but couldn't work out how to remove it. Can anyone give me some clues? Please!
Nobody has come to help, see what I can do.

I assume from context you mean the trim under the steering column which sits above the driver's shins and houses the fuse box cover, the OBD socket and the pull handle for the service flap. It is fixed by two bolts, three clips and a support piece. I suspect the bolt you have yet to undo is the one just to the bottom right of the fuse box cover hidden by the the lower A- pillar trim which extends to the threshold. This is all from memory of some time ago so might not be spot on but you need to remove the lower A-pillar trim to access the bolt.

Start at the 2cm wide short filler trim to the right of the headlight switch and lower air vent. The reason is it has a tab that mates with the top of the lower A-pillar trim and if you don't remove and yank out the lower piece you are in danger of breaking the tab off. This little piece of trim has two spring clips, pull out at the top, not too far or you might break the tab and slide up until the tab is clear, pull out if you want to.

The lower A-pillar/threshold trim next. It has clips along the threshold that pulls out vertically, so pull/lever the trim up to free the trim here. It may have something fixing at the front vertical part (can't remember) but pull it towards the back of the car and out.

Now you can remove the hidden bolt on the under steering column trim. Three clips at the top that pull out horizontally and the whole piece is free except for ancillaries. Disconnect the OBD connector, for once it has a remover friendly two squeezy bits, pull and out. I am almost certain you will need to release the service flap pull handle from its cable, in fact it would be sense to do this before anything else, you will see out it works by adopting a contortionist's position, think of it as a warm up for the contortionist feats to come by the sound of it.

Hope this helps.

Andy
 
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Andy, thank you ever so much for this. I needed a bit of moral support and this has done it. Really helpful to have your description of the clips and how to release them. Right now the area looks pretty unmolested and I had visions of breaking clips I didn't know existed! Might still happen, but at least I have a fighting chance. Really appreciate you taking the trouble to answer - many thanks :)
 
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