Most Easterly Pandas said:

It'll be the actuator, or control rod.

Worse case is it'll need to entire heatbox replacing - About £75-£200 for it used, and front doors off and dash out to remove and refit (took me 13 hours on a friends Panda).

Not something for the light hearted and not going to be cheap on labour if a garage doing it.

Click to expand...

Yeah I hope it's not the entire thing.


Is the actuator the one on the left?




Anyway to test that it's working?

Thanks.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

It'll be the actuator, or control rod.

Worse case is it'll need to entire heatbox replacing - About £75-£200 for it used, and front doors off and dash out to remove and refit (took me 13 hours on a friends Panda).

Not something for the light hearted and not going to be cheap on labour if a garage doing it.

Click to expand...

Trouble with getting a used one is that these parts are notoriously flimsy and there's no guarantee that (a) they haven't been damaged getting the heatbox off or that (b) a secondhand one isn't also going to fail in short order after doing the best part of 2 days work. Paying for a new heatbox + labour to fit doesn't seem a reasonable option, either.

Designing a car in such a way that you practically need to remove everything inside forward of the seats to get proper access to the heater, and then putting in a heater of rather flimsy constructon... and AIUI the 500 is no better.

:bang::bang::bang:.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

It'll be the actuator, or control rod.

Click to expand...

I had the back of my hand on the actuator and it doesn't seem to be doing anything when I move from hot to cold. However, when I turn the heater on and off I think it moves.

Aston Martin said:

I had the back of my hand on the actuator and it doesn't seem to be doing anything when I move from hot to cold. However, when I turn the heater on and off I think it moves.

Click to expand...

This:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5M-cable-..._Equipment_Instruments_ET&hash=item4189ddbfd4

Aston Martin said:

I had the back of my hand on the actuator and it doesn't seem to be doing anything when I move from hot to cold.

Click to expand...

Are you going from HI to LO on the temp setting when doing this rather than just changing the numbers? As anything above Lo (16C is it?) will still be trying to chuck out max heat if the cabin temp is only 10C for example, so you wouldn't feel it move.

The fact that it does move when turning off sounds like its working (the actuator), in which case it could be its chewed the teeth off of the control rod that it connects to

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Are you going from HI to LO on the temp setting when doing this rather than just changing the numbers? As anything above Lo (16C is it?) will still be trying to chuck out max heat if the cabin temp is only 10C for example, so you wouldn't feel it move.

The fact that it does move when turning off sounds like its working (the actuator), in which case it could be its chewed the teeth off of the control rod that it connects to

Click to expand...

Its snowing and I had to pop to the shops... Actuator seems to be working hot to cold.

I have a few options,
bodge piece.
Try and force into hot position.
Get part remade at engineers?
Replace heater?
Set car on fire.

I would like to force to hot position if possible.

I've just encountered this exact little problem. I hoped it would be something like a thermostat or a hose. But Bob from the garage phoned up, and said "it's rather bad news. I'm afraid", and it had been so cold for the previous couple of days that I very nearly thought I might blow out £1000-for-a-little-bit-of-plastic-oh-plus-8-hours-labour. But then saner counsel prevailed.

I mean, with that kind of dosh you could buy a state-of-the-art hi-tech climber's jacket, and three hot water bottles. So I said "never mind, stick it all back together".

BUT when I turned up to collect her, Bob said "ah... we've managed to bodge it... we stuck a P34 onto the flange with a nardle spudger" or something.

Don't ask me exactly what they've done. BUT. The damn thing works. It's not quite as slick as it was before... you have to put the defrost on to urge the heater to start producing hot air, for example, but at least I have hot air and cold air when I want them. Best of all, Bob only charged me for the assembly and disassembly.

Think I got off rather lightly there!

Pete

So garage rang me and said my cars ready, it was fiddly but we did it. Then he said its forced to hot now.

So I dunno until I pick it up, I'll be happy stuck with hot at the min. I'm dying in this weather with no heat, plus I nearly killed 142 cyclists because windscreen won't demist.

So its forced to hot mode, the mechanic came out and said when summer comes its a half hour job to force cold.

Duckdodgers said:

Does anyone have a picture of the actuator that everyone's talking about?

Click to expand...

I have had the same problem easy fix . Find the actuator drivers side just on the left of the heater box . Remove the 2 screw bolts ,disconect the wire . The problem is the plastic stalk has snaped of and is loose in the actuator . Remove epoxe 2 pack glue stick back on . Leave to cure the refit actuator job done . Bit of a broken arm job but its not to bad . Hope you find this helpfull

fiat fix said:

I have had the same problem easy fix . Find the actuator drivers side just on the left of the heater box . Remove the 2 screw bolts ,disconect the wire . The problem is the plastic stalk has snaped of and is loose in the actuator . Remove epoxe 2 pack glue stick back on . Leave to cure the refit actuator job done . Bit of a broken arm job but its not to bad . Hope you find this helpfull

Click to expand...

sorry to revive this thread, i know exactly what I'm looking at etc. and I'm glueing the same as yourself, my question is, is it the flat bit inside the circular part where the bit that has snapped off that moves or does the whole circular bit sticking out bit move?

thanks!

Hi fiat fix Hegnirst! Would you mind sharing some pictures or maybe even a movie on YouTube please? I had a go at this myself but coulnd't figure stuff out. It sounds easy but there's plenty of things stuffed in the heater box. Cheers!

Hi there i know mine isn't a 100 hp but sounds like i have same problem in my 04 reg 1,2 eleganza ,are they the same set up ? Thanks.

zzhawker said:

Hi there i know mine isn't a 100 hp but sounds like i have same problem in my 04 reg 1,2 eleganza ,are they the same set up ? Thanks.

Click to expand...

Yes, 1.2 Eleganza has the same electric aircon unit.

I'm looking at getting a 100hp when I can find one with the SkyDome that isn't at the other end of the country, so have read this topic with interest.

I wonder if it would be possible to replace a broken climate control heater box with one that runs manual air conditioning, along with installing the manual a/c controls.

I know the electrical connections would be different but perhaps "downgrading" to manual a/c would be easier than retrofitting climate.

Any thoughts?

Veemo said:

I'm looking at getting a 100hp when I can find one with the SkyDome that isn't at the other end of the country, so have read this topic with interest.

I wonder if it would be possible to replace a broken climate control heater box with one that runs manual air conditioning, along with installing the manual a/c controls.

I know the electrical connections would be different but perhaps "downgrading" to manual a/c would be easier than retrofitting climate.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Its not impossible, but would be agrovation and potentially affect resaleability & Value.

Good point, resale may well be an issue. But probably not as much as a non-working heater as there is no way I'd spend £1k + labour on fixing that particular fault when it'd probably break in a similar fashion in the future

My question was prompted by this car, currently for sale on Autotrader:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...rt=locasc&make=fiat&postcode=sk95he&logcode=p

Perhaps it is an import (no evidence of that in the searches I've done) but perhaps a previous owner installed an a/c heater box rather than a climate part when it broke. I've seen plenty of european spec 100hp Pandas on ebay sites with a/c rather than climate so they are out there (doubltess fitted as standard elsewhere in the world, not suggesting they've all been converted).

Downgrading isn't impossible but it will involve a lot of time and possible money. Right now that seems like the only option. does anyone have any ideas on how to reattach this spline to the main shaft? my fears are that superglue or any other adhesive will just break again.

Also I cant find the part number for the actual flap as the Peugeot 407 had a similar problem and a 'keyhole surgery' method has been developed to replace the flap without removing the heater box.

Pictured is the actuator with the spline snapped inside the half gear and the hole in which it should be attached to.

CCTG said:

Pictured is the actuator with the spline snapped inside the half gear and the hole in which it should be attached to.

Click to expand...

Legend! Thanks for the pictures CCTG!

Great pics there, nice job!

I wonder if something like JB weld or quick steel would fix the snapped piece. It looks too small to drill through then get a screw or pin of some kind up the centre.