OK, just did this on my car, a 2011 Abarth 500C (with the semi-auto box), RHD. Could NOT find any shop in my home city prepared to give this a go.
Not too bad a job BUT lots of hard to see/reach stuff in a confined space. About 4-5 hours all up, going slowly & doing it for the first time. All comments in the context of my Oz-delivered RHD car.
The steps I followed were:
- Disconnect battery (Note: this is due to needing to remove an airbag - make your own decision as to how comfortable you are with this airbag removal.).
- Remove the pocket/dash moulding that has the OBD plug behind it, RHS of dash.
- Undo the two hex bolts under the dash/at the edge of the knee airbag - post 48 has a helpful link.
- Remove the knee airbag. Note this doesn't just "fall out" once you have undone the bolts - it needs a bit of a wiggle/lift and some SLIGHT force. The top location is rubber tabs into the dash, on the edges.
- Note the airbag has a SHORT ELECTRICAL LEAD - do NOT pull excessively as you remove it.
- Unclip the electrical lead for the knee airbag - the clip is hard to see, and obscured/towards the airbag body. Do not force it - look for the clip. Once unclipped, you can lift the airbag away.
- There are two unfinished (i.e. natural mild steel finish [including burrs...]) pressed steel brackets you need to remove, that are largely there to support the knee airbag. These are removed by undoing two pozi screws (nearest centre console) and a 13mm nut (nearest RHS of car, roughly in line with the OBD plug but behind). Thankfully all relevant nuts & screw are captive.
- Once these screws/nut are undone, and you have removed a couple of electrical retainer "fir trees" on the brackets, the brackets come away.
- Unclip the main power lead that protrudes from (I think) the power steering (or is it the ABS? Not sure....
)
- I then had good access to the mixer motor - no other components needed to be removed.
- ....And then it's a matter of following the guidance in posts 36 & 38.
- Then rinse & repeat to reassemble.
The only point I'd add to 36 & 38 is that the spindle plastic is very soft (at least on my car) AND the spindle is quite narrow. I didn't fully open the heater box but just drilled into the spindle. And, I think I missed the centre, so my ground screw/spindle fix is more running along the side of the spindle than straight through the middle. However, so far it seems adequate to grip the mixing flap for the heater to work. Time will tell...
Final odd thing I've noticed is that under some conditions the AC seems to "pulse" on & off - not sure what's going on there. My suspicion is that the climate control may need a re-calibrate - if it continues I'll contact a Fiat shop & have it done (I suspect it's a
MultiECUscan-type job on the 500s, & I don't have the software).
Hope this helps by adding to the knowledge base!
