Heater Controls
I had known there was a problem with the heater controls, however as long as the windscreen demisted ( it did, but not with any enthusiasm) and I didn't get frostbite while driving, I left it alone. The fan speed control worked fine. Anyway at about 25500 miles I delved into the dark recesses of the dashboard and before I knew it, had pulled the heater panel out.
I found, as I suspected, the temperature control springing uselessly back and forth, and the air control system broken, and reckoned I could restore them to life.
First, how do you get at them? The panel is held by 6 self tapping screws with T-20 size Torx heads, all accessed from behind. Two can be got at through the radio aperture - you'll need the radio out anyway to disconnect the wires. You can see the 6 screw holes in the picture below.
Space is limited in some areas, I had to cut my driver handle down, giving an overall length of 135mm. It was quite a reach to the lower 4 screws from the bottom of the dashboard, and required me to lay uncomfortably across the seats.
There are 3 obvious electric cables; hazard, fan and cigarette lighter. The two control wires have a thick ferrule on the outer tube which clicks into a holder on the back of the knob assembly. These need to be popped out carefully as the plastic part can break, like mine did (oops..). The ferrule was a little corroded and didn't want to come out. The wires have "Z" bends and the ends just unhook. See below. The picture actually shows the repaired & straightened parts, but is the best view I had of these.
Here are some views of the temperature lever, and the original shape of the wire:
I also shortened the wire about half an inch, bending a new "Z" with some narrow nosed pliers. I couldn't see where the other end of the wire was to adjust it there instead, the cable disappears into the sound insulation somewhere.
Note the control knobs weren't very well lined up with the pictures on the panel. They can be moved by levering the arm off inside and moving it around on its splines, it looks like this:
I superglued the cracked cable holder arm. This won't be enough to hold against the operating forces on the cable, so I roughened the plastic and splinted across the joint with bits of carbon fibre and superglue:
I don't have a good photo but I then filled it out a bit with microballoons and thin superglue. Apparently baking powder and superglue make a good strong filler also, and you may find it a bit easier to source than microballoons (tiny glass spheres).
One last thing on the levers - the "fixed" part of the mechanism, seen above, is prevented from rotating by castellations (square bumps) underneath, which can break. I understand later models have stronger ones. Sure enough, one of mine was bust, allowing the fixed arm to swivel around:
Since I don't need the arm to be adjustable to other angles, I sorted this one with superglue, which locked the whole thing solid. It also removes some play in the control so I did the other one as well. For some reason the design doesn't use multiple teeth to lock it in place, just one tooth which you can just see at the top of the right hand arrow.
Before proceeding to the other part of the repair, I dribbled first a little penetrating oil into the control cables, and then some thicker gear oil.
PAGE 2 - AIR CONTROL FLAP - click here for more,
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