ap0gee

Recently, the heater / air con control panel failed on my wife's car. It didn't light up with the headlights, the recirc and air con buttons stopped working, and so did the temperature control. The fan still worked (different circuit), as did the vent direction control (which is mechanical!) It was as if fuse 12 had failed, even though it was fine...

This job needs the entire lower section of the dash out, so start by following the Technical Guides for clearing the vent fan internals (link) and steps 1-7 of the one for evaporator temp sensor replacement (link). The latter tells you most of the tools you'll need, although you will also need a ratchet driver or a very short handle for your Torx heads, as some of the screws are in tight spaces. The part number of the heater / air con panel is 6Q0 819 445, and I got mine for about GBP60 delivered from a scrappy. I apologise for the rubbish cameraphone pics, however as some on here will know, my decent camera's in the shop... There is a printer-friendly pdf version attached at the end of this post if you need it.

1. With just the centre section of the lower dash remaining, remove the stereo and tray / cupholders underneath. I won't tell you exactly how to do this as it's a minor security risk, but it's easy enough:



2. Next, pull / push out the trim either side of the stereo, and the blanking plates above it:



3. Take care to disconnect any switches:



4. Undo the two retaining screws for the heater / air con panel:



5. ...and carefully pull the cover of the panel off, pushing the panel itself into the dash:



6. Unscrew the two screws shown:



7. ...the one at the back of the stereo cage:



8. ...this one above the clutch pedal:



9. ...and this one behind the little cover above the steering wheel:



10. The centre section of the lower dash should now just pull away:



11. Put the bit of dash somewhere where it won't get in the way or get damaged, and swap out the heater / air con panel:



That's it! Put everything back in reverse order, and all should be well. The job took me about 90 minutes from start to finish, including the steps in the other two TGs. I found it took a couple of uses of all the controls before fault codes stopped being recorded - not sure why this should have been, but it didn't stop it working so shouldn't be an issue if you don't have VAG-COM etc.

HTH

Ap0gee

Attached Files

Fabia_heater_+_A-C_controls_replacement.pdf (8.68 MB, 22 views)

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stuart_hatch

Do you know how much a new panel is from a dealer out of interest?

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ap0gee

I'd say three figures probably, although I don't know that. Don't think I trawled round scrapyards for mine, though - I just emailed some and got quotes. I ordered Saturday and it arrived Monday. Fitted Wednesday, and the rest is a bit like the Craig David song from the POV of my extremely pleased wife!

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ap0gee

/\ Someone with a similar problem was quoted £600 - I think I need to mention this to SWMBO for even more money-saving gratitude!

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Cliveski

Thought I would let you know I finally got around to changing mine yesterday. Again thank you very much for the very useful guides!

Extra info I would add would be as follows:

On the first photograph I had a couple of screws to undo just underneath the blanking switches - on your photograph you don't appear to have any screws in those holes.
Lastly I undid all 4 screws on the underside at step 4 although I'm not sure if I needed to.

The part number for my 2001 Fabia TDI was 6YO 820 045 A and cost me £50 delivered from Devonutopia. Online breakers wanted between £50 and £70 + delivery.
Skoda wanted £198.93 for this part - maybe plus VAT too (I had already switched off at this point) and said it would need to be programmed to the car but mine appears to be working fine so far.

Jason recommened that when I fitted the new unit I had the dials in the same position as how they were left on the old one I removed.