jenskleis

Since buying my car, I have been annoyed by the illumination of the air con control unit. It always seems to be dimmer than the rest of the instruments.

Yesterday I decided to have a closer look, and took the front panel off the control unit. There was the reason for the dim light... Imagine what 10+ years of dirt does to the efficiency the clear plastic prisms that distribute the light around the panel....

I cleaned everything with the same liquid I use for my glasses, and re-assembled the panel. Excellent result!!! Now the panel is just as bright as the rest of the instruments.

John Boggiano

Presumably, you had to extract the control unit to remove its front?

How easily does it come off?

Damn - I just found ANOTHER job to do!

Andy Roe

John,

You don't have to remove the whole unit to take off the front. You can just pull the unit out about a inch, which gives access to a couple of clips that hold the front on. Their is one electrical plug which needs to be disconnected. It took me about 15mins.

Andy

jenskleis

John,

I took the same approach as Andy. You don't need to pull it all the way out.

You need a couple of "hooks" like those used to extract a Blaupunkt stereo (see Adrians book, Air Con description). I made them from a dry cleaner hanger.

It is easier to dislocate the air con control unit if you reach behind the dash and push from behind. Just be careful not to damage the ventilator for the thermostat (located far left on mine).

Take care

DavidI

Just a small word of warning - I attempted to remove my control unit with the Blaupunkt thingy and snapped the plastic surrounding the holes. It had become so brittle with age that pressure on the sides cracked bits of the plastic front. I was annoyed with myself when I saw how easy it was to get behind the unit (under the dash) and push it forward, negating the need for the tool totally