I have just bought, picking up on Friday, a 2011 (60 plate) Fabia VRS, and there are a couple of optional extras I wish it came with. 

 

My main, wish, is that the manual air con unit (with the dials) would/could be changed for the climatronic (digital) unit. 

I have seen these on ebay from breakers and scrap yards for between £60-£80, which is a great price. 

 

THIS HAS PICTURES OF THE REAR OF THE UNIT...

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Fabia-Mk2-5J-2007-Climate-Control-Panel/400673094257?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222006%26algo%3DSIC.FITP%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20202%26meid%3D5427785453657232851%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D9063%26rk%3D0%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D350810974882 

 

But I have found no pictures of the rear of the other manual unit. 

 

HOWEVER....my question, which I have searched the world over for, is. 'Can you simply swap and change the unit's out? Do they have the same input wiring looms ect? Does the climatronic require additional components? Or am I right in thinking the only thing that is different is the facia of the heater unit (the dials ect) and if I bought a digital climatronic unit, that I could change it eg. a direct swap out, for the old unit?

 

I am brand new to this forum so please excuse me if there is already a forum I have missed ect. 

 

George Tyler

Climatronic is a complicated system with many inputs from ECU sensors and a sunshine sensor on top of the dash. So you'd need that sensor and the ECU configured accordingly at least.

Also the air box and fan are likely different - maybe one of the folk with access to the systems could say for sure? Of course the air box with Climatronic is fully electronically operated and no doubt has position sensors as well. The fan, at least on the Mk.I Octavia incarnation, was 256 speed electronically modulated rather than a simple 3 or 4 speed resistor job (though it may have been the same part, of course).

You can't swap the standard manual unit for the digital one, it has been confirmed on a previous post.

I enquired about doing it as well but the place selling the Climatronic unit confirmed also that it can only be fitted to an existing Climatronic equipped car as a direct replacement.

Thank you pearce_jj, it sounds, if you are correct, that it would be much more complicated than I had anticipated. However I wonder if anyone has had this changed by the dealer and if so how much they charge??

 

I was also thinking of having cruise fitted by the dealer. That along with me fitting a sound system, will have me the perfect car! 

I would've thought that the dealer could do it but it would time consuming therefore very expensive.

Cruise can be fitted by an auto electrician and has been done by a few people on here.

Eddie-NL seems to know his stuff and has quite a few posts on here regarding fitting cruise, Multi function steering wheels and the like.

The cruise can be bought as an aftermarket kit but not sure how easy it is to fit DIY.

Cheers Gazbull17, very useful info, I will get in touch with Eddie-NL with regard to cruise 

Speak to Eddie about Cruise control, he's great and really knows his stuff. He retrofitted my MaxiDot and my MFSW. I did my own DAB Columbus and Factory Bluetooth kit, along with fitting a Monte interior to the Scout. A lot of what the dealers say is going to be down to the fact that they just don't have experience in doing such things, so it's invariably a "No". I was told that the MaxiDot was impossible and the full MFSW was impossible and the Bluetooth was again..........impossible.

 

On the Climatronic side of things, it's not impossible, but you would probably find it cheaper to actually buy a car already with it, you would not just need the panel, but the matrix, ECU's, sunlight sensors, temp sensors and a shed load of coding. Sometimes it's better just to realise that it's just not a cost effective job, in the case of climatronic, just to get a nicer heater control panel.

 

Just to echo, speak to Eddie about cruise, he will be cost effective and IMHO more knowledgeable than the dealer tech's, and his work is first class

fluffmeister Did you retrofit the Columbus sat nav unit?? Did you have to fit an additional antenna? If so how easy was it and where did you locate it?

Did it myself, but I have done it before on my old Octy 2 vRS and my Previous Superb 2 going from an Amundsen Plus. GPS antenna is magnetic and fixed under the dash behind the upper glovebox. No problem with satellite reception at all either, all works as it should do