97 Eurovan Climatronic not working.

[scottz]

Hi All,

The Climatronic in my 97 is not working properly. I have removed the faceplate and cleaned the small fan by the temp sensor, but nothing changed. I hate "climate control systems" in cars!

There is not much info from doing a search here. I just bought a VAG-COM cable but haven't used it yet. I'm hoping this will give me some answers.

Are there any other trouble shooting tips out there for the Climatronic system?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[Scottn59c]

What, specifically, are the symptoms? Is the system working intermittently? Not at all? Do you get heat but not cold A/C?

You might want to look at the compressor - they've been known to fail on EVs.
_________________
Farfignewton!

[scottz]

Well, I'd say it's not working at all.

The controls blink several times at start up.

No AC but I haven't really tried that yet. No real heat either. Ther rear blower seems to work fine but only blows luke warm air.
The front blower only works sometimes. When the front blower does work, it will cycle through all of the fan speeds, but only blows luke warm air through the far left and far right dash vents. NO DEFROST, which is all I really NEED!

Again, the air never gets that warm despite the van being at full temp.

Is there a way to manually adjust the flaps to have the defrost work?

Any other ideas? I will hook up the VAG-COM soon enough for diagnostics, but I have never used that before so I am not sure about the learning curve.

[mvaska]

the blinking is it telling you to use VAGCOM to see the error code. it's the clima version of a check engine light.

of course, you already know something's up... so useless.


some vents are manually on/off no matter what the clima settings are. the far right/left ones are like this. the center dash ones are sorta like this too (use the up/down wheel to turn them off/on.


the lack of hot air could be simply due to the exchanger not being in position.. so it's sucking cold air too and thus making it luke warm. but that wouldn't explain the rear heat which has no exchange. that makes me think it's something under the hood like a vacuum issue.. or.. or... a dozen other things.

is your check engine light on? did any event transpire between working and not working? was it sitting for a long time? have you checked all the fuses? is there anything else not working?

[scottz]

Yes, the check engine light is on. No major event under my ownership. Yes the van sat for a while, not sure how long.

I bought the van in Sept 2017 and just started sorting through it.

I ran a scan with the VAGCOM and here's what I got...

P0400 EGR system - I imagine this was causing the check engine light.

01272 - Positioning motor for central flap (V70)
01273 - Fresh air blower (V2)

So, this gives me some things to investigate. I'm hoping its a connection issue and i don't have to replace any parts. We'll see.

I plan to access what I can without removing the dash, but I'm pretty sure i will have to pull the dash.

Anyone have any tips on this? Thanks again!

[Abscate]

The codes are showing problems with exactly the parts that will cause your symptoms. Pull those parts and evaluate off car, then replace.

I would have already ordered the parts based on the wiring quality on T4s, it's very good
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.ssS!

[mvaska]

good news is no full dash removal required for those two things.

the position motor... sometimes those just get stuck.. like if a kid drops a toothpick in the vent. once you remove the motor/cable you should be able to work the flap easily and also see the motor arm move when you change settings.

fan motor is a bit more intensive but not bad.


that said, i'd also look into whether or not the foam on the flaps has disintegrated. there is no clima error for this -- check for blowing chunks of foam or, when everything is fixed, if it still won't send the right temp air to the right vent.

[scottz]

Thanks very much for the replies!

The heater core was changed a few years ago by a shop. I wonder if something was reinstalled incorrectly.

I will inspect/clean everything as I get access to it.

Abscate, I agree these items being on the fritz is consistent with my symptoms. I still plan to inspect the parts in question before ordering new.

mvaska, I assume I access this stuff from under the dash. Is this correct? Any additional description on where this stuff is located. It may be obvious but I haven't looked yet.

Oh, and the front fan has worked intermittently and cycles through all of the fan speeds with no squealing or anything. It was not working at the time of the VAGCOM scan though. This is another reason that I want to confirm the connections before ordering parts.

Thanks again!

[scottz]

** Update**

I found some more information on this. The blower motor issue is likely caused by relay 140, above the fuse panel. Some have taken the relay apart and fixed broken solder joints. Some have replaced the relay with new.
I plan to inspect and repair relay 140 if possible if not I will replace it.

Here are some links:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?6941316-...316?page=1

http://www.bba-reman.com/forums/Topic109814.aspx

Part number:

https://www.jimellisvwparts.com/products/gb/Relay-...gKnDvD_BwE

Seems like the simplest place to start, regarding the blower. Occam's razor and all...

[scottz]

This link may also help someone. My main goal is to get the heat and defrost working for winter. So I may adjust the flaps by hand for now and do a more permanent fix this summer.

http://vweurovan.wikia.com/wiki/Heater_Flaps