I haven't written since last year. Life has been time consuming but recently it's just been too hot to drive the brick. Before we get the air conditioner blowing cold, we should be able to get air flow to our face. A new vacuum actuator has been sitting on the shelf staring at me in its blue box, and we have to fix the instruments illumination too. Since we have to remove the console and cluster to obtain access to the air conditioner, we decided to fix both.

After ten hours of lazy work we have ECC working and the work remaining is to reassemble the interior. Quite a bit of this time was spent solving the puzzles, looking for secret screws, etc.

The cluster took ten minutes to fix by reflowing four solder joints. Two of them were under the lamp dimmer which is the box held in with six or so screws.

The air box is HARD. We used the "replace heater core" procedure from VIDA as a guide. Basically, the part with the vacuum actuators and doors serves as the cover for the heater core. I think that it was written with older cars in mind, because there are some extra steps necessary to remove the ductwork.

You have to remove the center console, radio, ECC, wood trim around the center dash, and the face vents/trim around the instrument panel.

You have to remove the knee bolsters on both sides, glovebox and door, and passenger side airbag and the bucket it sits in. We left the airbag connected because we didn't feel like disconnecting the battery. The wire is long enough to give you room to work. You also should remove the brackets that hold the knee bolsters to the transmission tunnel.

The PRNDL indicator does not seem to disconnect from the shift console, but it unclips from the wood trim.

You should unhook the relay holder from the transmission tunnel and remove the bracket. This also fixes the dash to the transmission tunnel.

You can bend the left face vent but not remove it. Do not try to remove it. Remove the elbow for the left vent. Remove the duct for the passenger's face vent. Then you can remove the center piece of the duct from the front of the HVAC box (it clips on, don't worry) while prying it out of the center duct for the face. Then remove the center face duct from the dash. These parts come out to the passenger's side.

Now you can work on getting the floor duct out from under the air box. On my car there was one screw holding it to the airbox. There is one floor vent on either side and two screws hold either one in. You should remove the screw (under the carpet near the seat bolt) that holds the rear heater ducts in. Now you can bend them and unhook them from the floor duct. Once you did this, slide it forward and bring it out under the left side of the dash.

The defroster duct was the most difficult part for us. It is why you must remove the glovebox and passenger airbag bucket. I was able to lift the airbag out and hold it in my lap for the time being. Unbolt the defroster duct from the firewall, remove the two pipes, bend down the driver's face duct, and work the defroster duct around it and out under the right side of the dash.

Now you can remove the 11 screws holding the front of the airbox on. When you pull it out it can be removed from under the right side of the dash. Don't forget to remove the four vacuum hoses and the temperature sensor before pulling this off. When you put it back on, mind the vacuum hoses. Start with the top screws, the right hand screw, then the bottom and left screws, then go back and tighten them in that order.

Of course all the foam was gooey and rotten so I used some adhesive foam tape from mcmaster-carr where the defroster and face ducts attach. There is no foam on the bottom.

This was a lot of work, but I was horrified by some suggestions I found in the internet to just get under the left side of the dash and saw out an opening for access. I'm not sure this would have worked on my car anyway. I'm glad we went through this trouble.

 

Nice info. Thanks for sharing.