'97 850 T5. No A/C temprature control on drivers side

[capybara]

Hi all, this is my first post so a big HELLO to the community.

I just purchased a lovely 1997 850 T5 (I'm in the UK). It has done 120,000 miles and is in really nice condition (full main dealer service history etc). The only problem than has come to light is that the Heating system gives full temperature control on the passenger side but no control on the drivers side.
No warning lights come on on the Climate control at any time and all works fine if you're lucky enough to be a passenger

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Jon

[Ozark Lee]

Do you have the manual climate control system or the electronic version?

They look very much the same except that the electronic version has the temperature measured in degrees,

[capybara]

Hi Lee, its the fully auto system, I would have expected the two red A/C and Rec lights toflash and signal a fault, but they don't so i'm stumped.... Any idea's ?

[Ozark Lee]

I would have expected the two red A/C and Rec lights toflash and signal a fault, but they don't so i'm stumped.

I would expect that as well but on to the problem.

You need to remove your driver's side damper motor. On a left hand drive car I could tell you exactly how to get to it but on a right hand drive I'm not sure if the entire climate unit is a mirror image or not - my guess is that it is the same.

You need to remove your lower dash panel which is 3 T-25 Torx head screws along the front edge of the panel. There should be 2 motors along the side of the climate unit and the temperature damper motor is the lower one towards the front of the car. Once the motor is removed inspect it for damage to the gears and also inspect the damper to assure it moves freely and that its square drive shaft socket isn't split or broken.

If the shaft is broken you can sometimes repair it by wrapping the pieces together with a small gauge solid copper wire. It is much like reinforcing a joint on a fishing rod.

...Lee

[capybara]

Hi, so sorry for the delay in getting back to say thanks.

I was away on hol's, just got back and dived under the dashboard to see what was happening. First thing to say is that the drivers heat damper is on the right hand side on right hand drive cars. The problem was some grease on the carbon strips on the motors circuit board. Whipped it of and the motor regained its full sweep. I also found that the foot-well air flow damper had broken it's plastic shaft (why oh why do car manufacturers use such vulnerable materials on items like that?) so had to fabricate a repair.

For future information (when the repair gives out) is there a sensible way of getting the damper flaps out without actually removing the ENTIRE dashboard?

Thanks again for the advice, very much appreciated.

Jon