AC Strip

[ScottD3]

I'm bored and thought it be a good idea to strip down my AC control unit and give it a clean.

You will need a T6 screw driver to take the unit apart.

First get a set of AC Controls

Remove the two screws that holds the fan in place. The fan can be a bit stiff to pull out but give it a wiggle and a tug, it will soon come out.

Then the 4 screws that hold the faceplate to the body. Left and right of the fan is two clips. small screw driver or the T6 screw driver, in the top one and little wiggle away will release. Do the same for the other side.

When remove the faceplate what out for the ribbon cable. This is soldered on to the button board.
Lay the faceplate down and you will see 4 more T6 screws. Remove theses.

You should now be left with just the buttons.

Time to take the buttons out and give them a clean. If you look on each side of a button, you will see a small hole. This is the catch that stops the buttons from fall out. You will need to push the button out, towards the front past this clip. Just go careful not to stab your self, break the button or damage the tracks (this will make the buttons movement rough). Use a small screw driver and gently push down with in the hole on each side. I used cotton wool buds and some alcohol cleaner.

Below is a picture of the springs. one of the plastic welds was snapped off and caused the metal spring to move away from the panel a little. I used my soldering iron and melted some more plastic over it. It seemed to hold during the test and refitting of the buttons.

Time to clean the fan. Unless this has been done before the fan will have about 10 years of hair, skin and other particles.

Screw driver, cleaning alcohol and cotton wool buds did the job.

I also removed the boards. No real reason, just felt like it.

And put it all back together.

 

[aragorn]

Have you retrofitted a facelift console?

 

[ScottD3]

Have you retrofitted a facelift console?

Almost, slowly building up the parts.
Got air vents, Hazard switch, switch panel, AC panel and Ash tray.

 

[aragorn]

Surely its easier to get the lot from one car?

 

[ScottD3]

Surely its easier to get the lot from one car?

Yup.
If I can find a car with the same colour dash as mine and double din then I would have bought the complete dash.
Theses parts was available when I collected my rear electric windows.

 

[aragorn]

double din consoles are extremely rare, if you had a chance of one already, you should have taken it. Its far easier swapping out the common bits of dash trim than trying to find a beige console!

Is the ashtray you have from a double din console?

 

[ScottD3]

double din consoles are extremely rare, if you had a chance of one already, you should have taken it. Its far easier swapping out the common bits of dash trim than trying to find a beige console!

Single din.
I would have bought it if it was double din and not bothered about the colour.
My interior is slate grey with wood trim or what ever its called.

Is the ashtray you have from a double din console?

Came from a single din unit.

 

[aragorn]

It wont fit the double din console then, single din ashtray is a different shape! Same with the climate unit, it sits further down on a Double Din car and is shaped differently to fit.

Docurley had a complete double din console a while back, i was going to buy it from him, and then he misplaced it. Last time i spoke to him he'd found it again though.

Any particular reason your wanting to go double din?

 

[ScottD3]

It wont fit the double din console then, single din ashtray is a different shape! Same with the climate unit, it sits further down on a Double Din car and is shaped differently to fit.

That i was not awear of.
I thought the only difference was the cage and faceplate. every thing else was the same but fitted in different locations.

Docurley had a complete double din console a while back, i was going to buy it from him, and then he misplaced it. Last time i spoke to him he'd found it again though.

Worth a PM?

Any particular reason your wanting to go double din?

At first I liked the idea of having an RNS unit fitted at some point, thought about getting bits for a double din to fit a symphony untill I got an RNS unit.
Not 100% sure what i want in there. Not thought about it much over the last couple of weeks.
I guess my final decition will be made by what parts are avaliable and how impatient i am.

 

[aragorn]

Nah the front of the climate forms the edges of the fascia panel on double din, rather than being square with a surround round it as on single din, in effect there is no faceplace on the double din console:

As you can see, the ashtray is also mounted lower down, and is hence narrower and more tapered to fit in the smaller gap.

Yeh i'd fire him a PM.

I might have the ashtray off you as the one in the shed is busted, but i'll need to pull it out and see whats wrong with it first.

 

[ScottD3]

Ahhh I see.

PM sent.

I'll get this week out of the way and i'll take a look and see whats out there. If i got no use for the ash tray i'll let you know.

Thanks for the info.

 

[rasA4]

Axios good pics, i left a drink from McD's sitting in the cup holder for a week yuk i know, and what happened was it slowly seeped out the bottom of the cup and went down the buttons on the LH side of my climate control buttons they are now sticky i did try and clean them out with water and old tootbrush, this did help however they are still a bit sticky...

how did you take the buttons out? do they come out from the rear thus de-soldering the plastic spot welds? ideally i dont want to mess with those

 

[aragorn]

I think they just pop out from his description.

 

[ScottD3]

how did you take the buttons out? do they come out from the rear thus de-soldering the plastic spot welds? ideally i dont want to mess with those

They pop out from the front. No need to touch any of the metal on the back. I did to fix something that was broken.
Pushing on the back of the buttons or using a small screw driver pushing down on the little clips on the side will work.

 

[rasA4]

They pop out from the front. No need to touch any of the metal on the back. I did to fix something that was broken.
Pushing on the back of the buttons or using a small screw driver pushing down on the little clips on the side will work.

Ok sweet will have to take it out again

 

[Foxmeister]

Feck me, you must be bored....Feel free to come do mine if you have any more bored spells mate! Lol

Thats some muck thats came from the fan, never really thought of that before, now you've got me thinkin, hmm.....

 

[ScottD3]

Feck me, you must be bored....Feel free to come do mine if you have any more bored spells mate! Lol

Thats some muck thats came from the fan, never really thought of that before, now you've got me thinkin, hmm.....

Post it down and i'll do it.

 

[jonnycraig]

Time to prob sound like a complete noob but whats the little fan do?

 

[ScottD3]

Time to prob sound like a complete noob but whats the little fan do?

Sucks air in from the cabin past the temp sensor.

 

[Foxmeister]

Post it down and i'll do it.

Would you? How much?

Quite able myself, but i know i'd never get round to it, im a c&£t at doing these type of things! Ha

 

[ScottD3]

Would you? How much?

Quite able myself, but i know i'd never get round to it, im a c&£t at doing these type of things! Ha

Cover postage for both ways and some beer token.

 

[Foxmeister]

Cover postage for both ways and some beer token.

Good stuff mate, will do. Cars in bodyshop now so should be back in a wk or 2, will sort it out when i get it back then, cheers!

 

[ScottD3]

I'm not sure if I should start a new thread or not but here I go.

I've stripped and cleaned two of theses now and both are loads better than when I got them.

I'm using one but the other is either going to go on ebay or if people wants, I'm more than will to take your Current AC unit and give you the one I cleaned for some beer tokens.

I'm also tempted to do the same with the Pre-Facelift AC unit.

Let me know.