Heater Controls. (have searched)

[Jim Bowen 1]

Can't access the wiki at the moment, i was going to put this in Kevs thread but its locked....

 

My heater controls have always been fine, had the speed on 4 and went to adjust the direction and ever since the direction control is stiff.

 

I've not broken anything yet, as i saw this was a common problem.

 

Have taken some of dash out and pulled heater controls forward and left with this......

 

 

 

Now i've pulled it out it all seems to move quite smoothly, Should i do anything? Kev recommends getting rid of the bit of metal that drops into the notches on the cog wheel?

[Jim Bowen 1]

my car seems to be falling to bits at the moment :lol:

[nibblesvr6 0]

join the club m8 my 1994 corrado still does it, the facia looks like some thief has had a go at it and failed, good luck ive given up..... :confused4:

[KipVR 1]

It's probably the cables at fault, they get worn and then get stuck sometimes. New cables make a big difference. :D

[Jim Bowen 1]

well been out in the cold garage today, thought i may as well try and fix this as the cars just sat there in pieces.

 

the controls seems fine to me, like you say it must be something to do with the cable, although i don't see them corroding or getting knocked about by anything.

 

so i'm going to try and find the other end of the windscreen one, as its only when trying to select the windscreen its stiff.

 

Is there an easy way to disconnect these metal cables, i had a go but not going to get mine off without bending the hooped end quite badly

[davidwort 0]

...

 

Is there an easy way to disconnect these metal cables, i had a go but not going to get mine off without bending the hooped end quite badly

I guess you just pop off the clamp and then turn the control unit around a bit (90 deg?) so the end of the cable can slide off the lever more easily.

[Jim Bowen 1]

done it now :lol: i was being stupid/blind, if you unclamp the cable 1st from the housing its much easier

 

freed the cable and that seems to work fine when i push it.

 

i think its just all the mechanism running out of grease, am going to grease it all and see what that does then

[davidwort 0]

as said, those (Bowden?) cables do wear inside, much like throttle cables or bike cables, and get stiff as the do.

[KipVR 1]

Yeah it's definately the cables mate, happens on all of them, the grease on the mechanism makes relatively little difference.

[Jim Bowen 1]

well i may as well replace the cable then, i think its only the one that stiff. Is there any reason why its harder to turn the direction knob with the blowers on speed 4? As this is what caused the problem.

 

trying to find the other end of cable is a nightmare :( been too cold today so gave up

[KipVR 1]

your just going against the blower that's all, it's all a bit shit to be honest, not very well thought out, but then it's a low production volume car....8 series BMW's are then same, lots of silly niggles.

[Jim Bowen 1]

i got the corrado out yesterday and the controls are now easy and smooth to operate again. :D WINNER

 

All i did was grease up all the cogs etc and left it in garage for a few weeks

[was8v 0]

Is there any reason why its harder to turn the direction knob with the blowers on speed 4?

 

 

OOOH don't change direction with the blower on more than 1 or 2!!!!!!

 

After owning a few a VR6s I'ver learnt NEVER to do that. The pins the flaps turn on aren't terribly strong, and going against a force 4 may cause the flaps to break away. To fix you need to take the dash out to get access to the heater box and thats not fun. Yes its happened to me.

 

Remember, only change direction when the blower is off!!!

[vw corrado storm king 0]

had this problem a few months ago and thought it would be best to change everything heater panel and cables

 

was fun and games trying to clip the cables back on the heater box and cost an arm and a leg

[Jim Bowen 1]

so far mine has been a free fix, i tackled it before i snapped anything. All seems ok now. With the cables disconnected i could operate the cables by hand nice and easily.

 

but the controls were stiff, i think they just run out of grease, looking back at the 1st pic i posted it all just clean, grease free plastic

[KipVR 1]

glad you sorted it chap :salute: sorry if I led you down the wrong path though :grin:

[G-Lad 0]

so my windscreen control cable is smooth and so is the temp control cable, but my face-feet cable is mega stiff, hence i have the good old grinding wheels.

 

if i'm going to swap the control housing, i fear i'll break that too if i don't swap my stiff cable.

 

what are my chances of replacing the face-feet cable without ripping out more dashboard than the centre section i removed to free up the control housing?

 

cheers

 

 

Chris

[G-Lad 0]

Just in case anyone else is hunting for info and finds this thread, here's the wiki page all about it

 

http://wiki.the-corrado.net/late_heater ... epair.html

 

It actually details putting in Passat parts, but covers the main points and also shows how to stop the face-feet control arm getting stuck again in future - simply dump or reposition the flat spring that provides the locating clicks at each of the 4 positions...

 

lets see if my stiff cable makes it happen again!

 

Oh, and here's some handy part code info:

 

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=47345&hilit=358+819+045