Hi all,

My Girlfriends 2011 500c is having issues with the climate control. It stopped blowing warm I buggered about with it and eventually got it blowing warm purely by pressing buttons and adjusting the temp/fan. However now it won't blow cold.

The other strange thing I noticed is the temp control now goes up to 32 before going 'HI' before it used to change to HI at 30.

I've checked the coolant and I've checked for leaks and wet carpets all seems good. I've also tried 'Cleaning' the cabin temp sensor, using the hoover AND compressed air to blow through the vent.

Anything else to try? Is it worth plugging an ODB2 scanner into it? There are no alarms on the dash.

Thanks,
Chris

There's a well known issue on models fitted with auto climate whereby a rather fragile plastic actuating rod breaks; it's an unbelievably complicated and potentially costly repair and individual new parts are not available.

Before assuming that's the cause, I believe there is a flap relearning procedure which can be run using the licenced version of multiecuscan, and this would certainly be worth trying. As always, there may be a member local to you who can help in exchange for a few beer tokens.

I doubt a generic code reader would give you much useful information.

I'm in Hornchurch Essex, I'd happily trade a few beers and travel if someone nearby has the software. Where is this rod? Any chance of plastic welding/replacing the rod myself? I have a mate with a lathe that I'm sure could turn up something out of aluminium.

Any guides on how to get to it or pics of what it looks like?

Thanks
Chris

Thinking about it it's probably worth buying the software I know I'll only have to Fix It Again Tomorrow ?.

Any recommendations for ELM327 connectors, can I use Bluetooth?

chris red said:

I'm in Hornchurch Essex, I'd happily trade a few beers and travel if someone nearby has the software.

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@typecastboy is just the other side of the river from you.

chris red said:

Where is this rod?

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Buried deep inside the heater box, which is the first thing that goes into the bodyshell when the car is built, and therein lies the first part of the problem. Access requires removing most of the interior forward of the front seats, including both doors.

There are a lot of posts here from folks with this issue; start here to read their stories.

Yeah, I'm in Orpington. 10 minutes from junction 4. I'm happy to plug into the car and see what we can find. Can't say I've ever seen any settings for climate control within MES. Anyone know which menus these are under? I'm off all next week so if you wanted to drive down/up/over, I'm happy to have a look.

@typecastboy climate control features on this sample vid. [ame]https://youtu.be/YqtQGzB2zlg[/ame]

Oh yes, so it does. Now you come to mention it I do remember seeing it.

So yeah, offers there, if you wanted to pop down next week, I'm around.

typecastboy said:

Oh yes, so it does. Now you come to mention it I do remember seeing it.

So yeah, offers there, if you wanted to pop down next week, I'm around.

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Thanks for the offer, I think I'm gonna buy it myself. She has already had a few electrical issues with the car which fortunately I've solved for cheap but I'm sure the software will come in handy in the future.

I've been reading some of those posts about the box repair, it sounds like a total nightmare. One post said to get to it you need to drain the AC and remove the doors! can anyone confirm this?

i don’t know why you would need to remove the doors unless some of that metalwork you can see in these pictures needs to be removed meaning that the door hinges need to be removed. Maybe these photos will help.

My next car which is coming Tuesday will be needing dash and airbags so I’ll look in more detail when I take the dash out if you’ve not figured it out by then.

chris red said:

Thanks for the offer, I think I'm gonna buy it myself. She has already had a few electrical issues with the car which fortunately I've solved for cheap but I'm sure the software will come in handy in the future.

I've been reading some of those posts about the box repair, it sounds like a total nightmare. One post said to get to it you need to drain the AC and remove the doors! can anyone confirm this?

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If you haven't already done so, go to the downloads section of this forum and help yourself to a copy of eLearn for the 500 - the procedure is detailed in there. The offical instructions are to remove the doors (presumably to enable the dash crossmember to be removed), drain the A/C, remove drivers airbag, steering wheel & upper column. The idea is probably to remove the heater box complete and then work on it on the bench

@typecastboy is probably as familiar with any shortcuts to this official procedure as anyone - he's stripped out enough 500 dashboards by now!

A definitive guide to fixing the blend door problem in a home workshop would be most useful, should anyone feel like taking up the challenge.

The 500 is a bit of a mixed bag as a DIY car; some jobs are almost trivially straightforward (for example the front brakes are about as easy as it gets), whereas others require you to have the dexterity of a spider monkey, the grip of a boa constrictor, the electronic wizadry of Lt Cmdr Data and the patience of a saint!

I'll be happy to take detailed photos of the heater box and any repair I do. Im not up to a bolt by bolt guide of the removal though! I'm not sure when I'll be doing it, the next few weeks probably assuming the reset doesn't fix it. I'm waiting on the 'yellow' adapter. To see into the climate stuff.

As an asside does anyone know if you can change the default setting of Stop/Start to off with MES and if so where it would be?

typecastboy said:

View attachment 189491View attachment 189492i don’t know why you would need to remove the doors unless some of that metalwork you can see in these pictures needs to be removed meaning that the door hinges need to be removed. Maybe these photos will help.

My next car which is coming Tuesday will be needing dash and airbags so I’ll look in more detail when I take the dash out if you’ve not figured it out by then.

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Wicked thanks, specifically interested in whether I need to drain the AC, as that'll be the only thing to cost money.

Any close ups of the flap/Mechanism would appreciated too.

I’ll most likely be taking the old dash out on Friday which I intend to video anyway, but I’ll do a separate video of the heater and try and take some detailed photos.

You need to get a Mobile AC company to drain the AC as it’s an offence to release the CFCs into the atmosphere. Every time I’ve changed a condenser luckily it’s already leaked and is empty but I don’t think they charge much to do this and obviously you will need it recharged afterwards.

So I never bothered sorting this. I asked a mate who is a mobile mechanic to have a look when he did a service if he could do anything, he pulled off the heater controller motor which you can access from the drivers footwell. The motor engages on the flap pivot with a keyway shape mine had sheered off.

I'm gonna have I think but I am trying to glue/screw something in to replace it and interface with the motor.

Long story short this could be a 20 minute fix. When I have a go I'll post pictures hopefully it will help some others out and they will not need to rip out the whole dash.

Pretty sure there have been several 'mini.guides' on repair solutions.

These issues effect every FIAT with climate.. so it is not always easy to find the posts.

Here's the problem...

The metal bar is too close to get a drill/screw in but I'm wondering if I can remove it without ripping the whole lot apart. I don't think it is the main bar it appears to hang off of it. Can the lower dash trim be removed easily?

Currently I've fiddled the flap to hot and jammed a drawing pin in it so at least it is warm at the moment. If I can remove the bar I think I could get a couple of self tappers in and possibly have it locate with the heater control unit and have it "fixed".

Would "pipe weld" type glue fix it used on poly pipe? Or heat a small flat bar say 5mm x 1mm and if possible melt it into the end in the hopes it doesn't swell and jamb it in the process such it won't turn then cut a key way in the broken off bit? Just a thought?

The problem with glue is I'm worried it will glue the moving parts together.

I had an idea of using a spline bit like this.



drilling a hole then heating the spline and melting it into the plastic. A flat bit of metal might be better.

Or trying to build something to screw into the side.


Currently it is wedged to hot with a drawing pin. At least my missus is warm now!

Big issue is type of plastic used for mouldings. A common plastic for this stuff is polypropylene for which there is no effective glue. It's a waxy plastic so it sheds the grip of glues. But looking at the broken component on this thread and others it might be possible to drill through the axis of the broken bit of plastic with a tiny drill bit , doing the same to the component on the flap which its sheared off of and inserting a very small screw of maybe 1.5/2.0 mm to hold the broken spline back onto the flap end. I have this problem on my 2011 Abarth 500....and it may be this fault . But I'm going to check cabin temp sensor first!