Cost: Price of newer Climate Control Unit on eBay
Tools: Needle nose pliers, pocket knife, small torx bit/allen wrench, 50/50 rubbing alcohol/distilled water, microfiber towel, Mr Clean sponge, q-tips
Time: ~1hr
Begin by removing the 4 torx screws on the back of the unit. There are two at the bottom and one at each corner near the top.
Bottom Screws
Top Screws on each end
Next use the pocket knife to unhook the clips that hold the front and back together. I found that starting near the top is better. There are 7 clips but once you get about 3 of them the unit begins to come apart.
Once you get the unit apart, disconnect the ribbon on the circuit board.
This is what the two halves look like.
The next step is to remove the circuit board from the faceplate. There are 8 torx screws that need to be removed.
Before you can separate the circuit board you need to remove the two pins on the heated seat dials that holds the halves together. There is one on each side. Use the needle nose pliers and pull out the pins.
Now you can remove the circuit board from the faceplate.
From here you can begin to swap buttons or the entire faceplate if its in good shape. The buttons are two parts and are held into place with a cap on the inside. To remove them, use your pocket knife and gently pry up the cap.
Here is what it looks like separated.
The buttons slide out from the front. Here is what is looks like once removed.
Depending on your situation, you can remove all of the buttons or only the ones you need. I went ahead and removed them all and cleaned up the inside which had a lot of dust buildup. All the buttons follow the same process, remove the caps and slide out. The heated seat dials are a little different. Grab your needle nose pliers and pull on the little circular tab. This will remove the heated seat pin assembly which holds the dial in place. Be careful when you pull it out as there is a little spring with a cap that can come flying out, Don't lose this! Note: When removing the heated seat dial, set the dial so that on the front the 3rd setting is selected. This will allow for the pin assembly to slide out easier. See 1st Pic Below you will see a break in the dial that has what looks to be a date of when it was made. That is what you want to have in the middle before pulling out the pin assembly.
This is pretty much it for the swap. Depending on how OCD you are you can clean up your unit if its dirty. Mine had a lot of dust so I pulled out the q-tips and when to work on cleaning up the circuit board. This isn't necessary and I don't know if it has an impact with the overall function of the unit. Do this at your own risk, I'm not responsible if you mess up your climate control.
Before:
After:
I then used the Mr Clean sponge to remove spots, fingerprints, etc from the front of the new faceplate. I lightly sprayed the sponge and then brushed the surface. Don't scrub as you can dull the surface or even make it peel more. You are only doing this to remove surface dirt from the unit. Use the microfiber towel to dry the unit. Again don't scrub, lighly pat dry to remove dirt. Here is a pic of how much dirt/dust the unit had.
To put everything back together, follow the steps in reverse. Make sure you keep track of which is your cars specific parts. This is the way to bypass your cars specific needs...if necessary. Since mines an '02 I'm only using the faceplate of the new unit but still retaining my circuit board and back cover w/ ribbon. If you have a newer car '04 and up (not sure if the '03's are the same as '02's) you might not need to do this. This still can be helpful if you're looking to clean up your unit.
Happy
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Originally Posted by Amstaff
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