I have a Fabia Se L Tsi and a few days ago the climate control started blowing cold air instead of warm - not good on a damp evening when keeping the mist off the inside of the windscreen is vital. My independent mechanic has used his diagnostic box and found that the temperature flap (is that the correct name?) is stuck open. He went to order the part but the dealer wanted to know the error code and now the diagnostics won't give the code the dealer wants.

 

The motor is around £190 and the job is difficult to get at, I'm told. The motor is a special order so can't be returned if it's the wrong one.

 

Does anyone have any advice to offer? Should I take the financial hit and go to the dealer? Or should I persist with the independent?

 

Of course, the car is just a few weeks outside of the extended warranty.

 

Many thanks,

Rob

 

What you might want to try is, demand Hi, wait maybe 10 seconds, demand Lo, wait maybe 10 seconds - then repeat that at least 10 times.

 

What can happen is, because these flap motors are not being exercised frequently over their complete range of movement, is that the positional feedback potentiometer's wiper and/or resistive track gets dirty and then its game over as the controller has lost control.  Doing what I've suggested can in that situation, force the wiper/track to clean up a bit and return the flap motor to being fully operational, for a hour/day/week/month/year.

 

I've only had that happen on my previous VW Passat - and that one failed Hi - which is okay in colder weather, in warmer weather opening the windows slightly worked a bit but annoying on long fast journeys - crunch time came on a long fast journey in very hot weather, stopping every 200miles was the only way to survive, and that forced me to man up and fit the new flap motor that had been living in the boot for too long.

 

I find that VW Group will not accept any electrical part correctly supplied as a warehouse etc order back unused nowadays, which I can understand.

 

Edit:- I'm a bit confused as to why the parts department need a fault code before they order, unless they are trying to protect your mechanic, I just order all my parts by their part numbers and they happily supply me, all good money for them.

Edited 22 November, 20214 yr by rum4mo