Late heater control repair

From THE Corrado Forum Knowledge Base

Got a very stiff or non-functioning heater direction control? Here are some hints and tips.

You will need the following:

Passat Control Panel 1991/H Era (From the scrappie)
Replacement Bowden Cables (£9 each from the dealer)

So let's begin

This first picture shows a couple of Passat (from a 91 H reg) facia panels I picked up from the scrappy for a tenner. The one on the right is perfect and has been modded to Corrado spec. The one on the left is standard Passat but look at the sheared plastic where the Bowden cable retainers sit! VERY VERY common problem.

Passat ones fit the Corrado OK but there are a couple of small things to change. These are detailed in the following pictures :

These pictures (of the Bowden Cables) show the root cause. Basically, the screen vent cable is very stiff and becomes even more so over the years. This reluctance to move causes the control mechanism to struggle and eventually shears off the plastic cable clip and the metal detent plate slips underneath the main gear wheel, causing that grinding feeling when you turn the knob.

This picture of the vent flap control shows another problem, whereby the face/feet vent flap lever jumps teeth, causing the air to go nowhere in particular. You need to prize the lever off and reset it's position so that the bowden cable resumes it's normal on/off cycle. You can hear when the flap is sychronized properly by means of a 'thunk' at the limit of each cable direction.

Here is a little information on the root cause of the control failure.. see the pic below. You'll see a metal spring tab. This clips onto the main plastic housing and provides the notch at each vent direction. In all the cases I've seen where the controls break, this metal tab falls off it's mount and jams under the gear wheels shown in the pic. Then of course, people tend to force the knob round and then the bowden cables snap off their mounts too!

My advice is to remove this stupid little metal tab altogether. You won't get the click stop at each direction but it's not a major issue and it's better than a not being able to direct air onto the screen during the colder months.