Heater fan speed control knob

[MikeKnight]

Fix one thing, another thing breaks. Poor car must've been very abused by the previous owner.

I turned the fan control knob (the one that sets the fan speed) to zero last night and got out the car, everything working fine, came to it this morning and it's as if the spindle has snapped during the night without me even touching it. The knob will turn and stop at 4 but won't engage into the "clicks" so won't actually operate the fans. Every other heater function works perfectly.

Anyone know how this is attached? I really hope I don't have to pull the entire unit to fix it as the rest of it works perfectly.

[spiffyguido]

Check your fuses for starters.

The knob itself I believe just pulls off. Could be wrong about that.

The climate control unit will come out in one piece, but you probably have to take some of the dash apart to get at it.

[MikeKnight]

Definitely not the fuses as the fan speed knob isn't "clicking" any more. when selecting speed position.

I'll try to gently remove it when I get a moment, though there's not much to lever against without damaging the trim. I tried to look up some heater unit specs but couldn't find anything that detailed how the control knob actually sits on its spindle.

I have no idea how it broke either as it was a case of "working one minute, broke the next" without me even touching it.

[spiffyguido]

The unit is probably screwed in place, so don't try too hard to pull it out. I've never done it on a 3rd gen, but on a 2nd gen you removed the lower half of the dash and removed a screw or two to get that control out. Might be similar.

[MikeKnight]

Quick update, the knob just pulled out with no effort at all because it's made of plastic and it was the tube on it that has broken.

Simple plastic fatigue, was probably already half snapped from storage and with me using it every day it finally gave up the ghost.

Was still complete though so I put a lot of liquid metal epoxy around it to stabilise and keep it together (that liquid metal is strong stuff) and it's now working fine. I also put a blob of silicone glue down the shaft to hold it more securely on the spindle, using that will also let me remove it again if I have to as silicone glue comes off pretty easily.

[spiffyguido]

Easy fix. Glad you got it working.