Step By Step : Retrofit FL Climatronic Module to PreFL

[Dread1977]

Advantages are looks, and display on the Screen of the stereo (stereo dependent, columbus/ans810 etc) thats about it.. but as you can see from this post and others on here, the ball ache is the wiring and subsequent issues with some cars having 2 control flaps for climate, vs 1 control flap on some slightly newer cars late 2007 onwards I believe..

Rob, im holding off on this for a bit to see if it eventually gets figured out by either yourself or someone else, as you have already gone and cut wires etc there seems no point me trying... as it stands id rather my climate functions correct instead of having all the swapping around trying to fathom it out...

Im also guessing that Ed`s loom he has mentioned doesnt cure this issue either?

[Dread1977]

Anything new happening Rob? have you had any luck revisiting this?

[Rob_Quads]

Not had any time to look into it any more yet. Maybe at the weekend but I'm not holding out too much hope

[Rob_Quads]

Result.

All sorted . All buttons fully functional. Will post instructions later

[Dread1977]

Nice one, please tell me its not a complete ******* to do?? :-)

Glad you got it sorted though, this guide will no doubt help many others too...

[octavia5]

Might be an idea to get this moved to the Octavia Technical Guides thread so it wont get lost over time - might need a request to the Mods

[Dread1977]

Agreed, once Rob has updated with all the info on how to do this it would def be worth moving it to a tech bulletin or something.. wont want this one getting lost.. glad i held on to the climatronic panel now :-) Nearly sold it

[Dread1977]

Hey Rob, appreciate youre a busy man and may not have the time to do a detailed write up, but have you had any luck with the instructions for this? ive got to take my head unit out again at the weekend to fit some other cables so I would maybe look to do this whilst the tools are out :-)

Thanks fella

[Rob_Quads]

HHmm so Looks like I failed to note exactly which cable I disconnected to get it to work. I think I know which cable it is. Instead of doing Pin 6 (green/white) to Pin 7 (grey/green) you just need to cut Pin 6 green/white and leave it disconnected.

I'll try and check before the weekend for you.

[Dread1977]

LOL, ok fella, thanks for the update and ill hang on to see what you come up with.. you the man for keeping on at this, id have got bored by now and scrapped the plan!!!

[Rob_Quads]

Right - Managed to take another look at this and it looks like when I thought I had it working....i didn't. After looking at the motors tonight its not doing what I hoped :( I'm not sure its possible in simple terms. I found the following

Motor 1 - Air Flow Flap - When open this allows fresh in. When closed it blocks off the fresh air intake

Motor 2 - Recirc Flap - When open this allows cabin air back into the system. When closed it blocks off the cabin air

So the theory of just taking the cables from motor 1 to motor 2 does not work.

If you take the signal from Motor 1 and apply it to Motor 2 then when you press the recirc button it closes the flap when you select recirc and opens it slightly when you select fresh air i.e. its the reverse of what you want...but more than that it only opens the flap a bit so you cannot just reverse the signal.

I tried disconnecting the Pin 6 (green/white) from Motor1 to Motor 2 and what that meant is that when you press the recirc button it opened the flap (i.e. what we want) but then when you set it back to fresh it, it does nothing and doesn't close it i.e. your then stuck with both fresh air and recirc

So the big issue is what with the single output the new module has there is no obvious way of getting it to operate Motor 2 correctly and also operate Motor 1 as well.

When I get a chance I am going to have another play with the cables but I'm not holding out hope.

I think I will probably just unplug the motors and leave it so its fixed to fresh air than undo it all

[Rob_Quads]

....and the investigations continue....

So I have found the following.

If you only wire the fresh air flap it works fine.

If you wire both motors in parallel then it does not work. The Recirc flap will open but only partially close. The fresh air one does not appear to move

If you wire just the motor cables in parallel (i.e. the connectors on the brown plug) then the Recirc flap appears to open and close but again not completely. The fresh air does appear to move (hard to tell how much)

If you wire just the motor cables from the fresh air to the recirc motor but disconnect the fresh motor then the recirc flap works properly.

So the last scenario IMO is as good as you will get with straight connections. It means the fresh air flap will ALWAYS be open and the recirc flap will work according to the recirc button. The setup I have currently got working like this is:

Motor Neg - Brown - Pin 7 - Purple / Yellow -> Brown - Pin 10 - Yellow / Green

Motor Pos - Brown - Pin 8 - Blue / Red -> Brown - Pin 9 - White / Green

Black - Pin 6 - Green / White disconnected.

Fresh Air motor disconnected

What this shows is that in theory they should be able to work.

I am wondering if a small relay loom could be used to get this working fully. I still don't quite understand the relation of the variable resistor in the motor component to the function of the motor.

[Rob_Quads]

So bit more reading up and its starting to make sense. So the variable resistor is used to feed back to the Climatronic panel when to open and close the flap.

The problem at the moment is the two flaps have different amounts of movement so if you have it set to do the movement as per the fresh air flap the recirc flap does not fully close as its not powered for long enough. If you use the recirc flap as the master then you risk breaking the fresh air flap as the motor will continue to operate once its fully open/close.

Some more thinking is required to work out how to get it to

[Dread1977]

All sounds a bit of a pain in the arse, but im guessing that if anyone is going to sort this it will be you Rob... good work so far fella, ill still keep out hope you find a solution for this..

[Rob_Quads]

This picture shows how it will work if you connect the motors in parallel but use the potentiometer from the fresh air flap.

Edited 22 June, 2013 by Rob_Quads

[sorin_ss]

sorry for postic here again but

hy guys,

i found something on a german site but i can't understand much. maybe it will help

 

http://www.golfv.de/...s/thread10.html

[Rob_Quads]

That looks like they are just doing the connections so it works as shown on the picture I posted previously. I don't think there is a full 100% solution without some control board to control the two motors independently from the single feed

The solution in the picture is the closest I think

[vrs777]

I'm not 100% sold on the look of the fl unit. It seems to go backwards in functionality or useability, ie. Buttons for air speed, note vw and Skoda have gone back to the style of pre fl models for the mk3 and mk7 golf in that they have 3 control knobs.

I was going to do this change but after reading this I'm very happy with the older more user friendly system.

Edited 3 July, 2013 by vrs777

[Rob_Quads]

I would argue that they have gone with a combination of the two in the mk3 golf. They've gone back tothe 3 knobs but they don't have crappy little backlit LCD for the displays they use the main console display for the extra information. The buttons are also a lot more techtile the same design as that found in the FL panel.

[JaVa^]

System Setup:

First Step - Basic settings: Hold button AC + button straight blowing (third button from left). You will see both buttons leds blinking one after another..let them run till they come to the normal status

Second Step - Compressor Settings: Starting the engine and hold LONG-AC + heating rear window.Let it run till it comes to the normal status.

 

I'm having this problem that i can't perform the second step. I don't know how long do i have to press those buttons? I held them for a minute when the car was running but nothing happens. Part no. for the unit is 3T0907044CA if it makes some difference? Unit has a button for factory fitted heater that the unit in this topic's first post doesn't have... The first step was ok. Does the cold weather affect this AC setting? It's about 5 degrees in here at the moment but i had the car in the garage and the car's thermometer showed 12 degrees in it.

[andreialex]

Hi. Rob

 

I know I am reviving a 6 month old topic, but I really like the FL panel.

My car is from 2005, so I must be having a 2 motor setup.

I would like to mount the FL climatronic unit, but seeing how many times you revised your instructions, could you post all the information once more in a sort of "idiot's manual" kinda way? 

Please tell me again what are the main draw-backs related to this retrofit (what functionality do I loose? Fresh air or recirculation)

 

Thanks!

[Rob_Quads]

I would say my original instructions are still about right but you will loose recirculation function.

 

Unfortunately its a case of having a play and see how well it works.

[Dakota558]

Bringing this one up again. Is there a way to figure out if the far has one or two motors?

[karlos1987]

it depends on model year, no problem is on MY08

[Dakota558]

I have an early 2007, so most probably I will have two I guess?