Senile old exec

[Smelliot]

Right, first of all I would like to give a big shout out to the peugeot electrical engineers and the budgeting department, without you I would be a happy bunny. If a car cost over £20k ten years ago, you would of thought they would put some quality connectors in.... but I guess not as I've already had to solder the main fan power as the connector burnt out and now this.

Anyways, I tagged on to a post that my outside temp sensor had gone, and that was that. On the multi-funtion display thingy, the temp now just has two flashing bars after driving and the temp just going up two degrees every 3-5seconds untill it hit 70. When I first brought the car it only had one flashing bar and the climate control seemed to do it's job correctly. For some strange reason, one day I turned the car on and it worked, showed the right temp (+/- 1deg), and it stayed like that for a year.

From what I can gather, the one flashing bar is the sensor is registring under it's range as the thermistor has gone (circuit open). The two bars is that it's registering over it's range (70+deg) because the thermistor has gone, but is shorting the circuit., or visa-versa, (This is what I understand from the electronics course I did) because the sensor is just a thermal resistor.

The trouble has now wormed it's way to the auto climate system The fans yesterday seemed to want to be on a higher setting then usual and I guess it's because the car thinks it's 70+deg outside and so tries to pull more air into the car.
This morning in the frost, the fans had no idea what they were doing! Almost full one min, off the next, the on and off all the way to work. I just put it on manual in the end. My instinct is telling me that the car thinks it's hot outside, so pulls some air in, realises it's now cold, turns the fans off, then it registers it's warming up in the cab and puts the fans back on to draw more air in... and so on and so forth.

Is this right, does the outside temp sensor have any control over the auto climate control at all or is this just wishful thinking and my Birton control box has gone senile? I e-mailed my local stealers and the external thermistor is about £15 and from what I have read on here goes in the passenger side wingmirror. If it's the Birton box, how much and where could I source one of those from... also fitting, easy or do I have to take the engine out to get to it?

Any input on this issue would be great, thanks guys.

[Welly]

The Climate uses outside temp, cabin temp, engine coolant temp, and sunshine detection.

It may be worth placing your ear up to the little sampling fan on the roof near the courtesy light to see if that is running (with ignition on) it's worth vacuuming the grille as well.

I think the problem would be the outside temp though. From what I remember it's easier to cut and solder the new sensor wires in the wing mirror as the connector is buried behind the door card (I maybe wrong here).

I regularly think about the cheapo connectors everytime my seat gets moved and the Air Bag light comes on

[Smelliot]

Thats a relief then, I thought it might have been my Birton box on it's way out.

it's worth vacuuming the grille as well.

Which grille? The one over the sensor on the roof? I did wipe over the sun sensor this morning, wondering if that might have been it.
If I'm going to cut and solder the new sensor, do I have to get one from the stealers for £15? Or does anyone have any info on the sensor itself as you could prob pick up one from Maplin for £2 with the same spec and solder that on?

"If it isn't broke, modify it till it is"

Also, the heaters sin my heated seats don't work, but the leather is good on them, so they'll have to stay cold, I'm not replacing the seats in a 11year old car Gotta love french electics

[puggy]

might be worth looking at the resistors and relays in the cooling fan shroud
a lot of the fan cutting in and out problems seem to stem from there

[Smelliot]

The fan doesn't turn all the way off, just up and down. If I put it on manual, it's fine. I've already had trouble with the fan shroud, for some fantastic reason, the main feed burns out as it pulls quite a few amps I'm guessing, again, thanks Peugeot. We had to clean some connectors up and solder a burnt out plug, so thats stopped that problem.

This is to do with the sensors, but I start to get out of my depth in this, but you guys are a brilliant bunch and have helped more in the past week then anyone I've met in the past year to do with the car.

I'm gonna go order the thermistor at the local stealers and see if that solves the problems. Oh, btw... if I put a new 'external temperature sensor' on it, will it have to be recalabrated?

[mjb]

With your heated seats, you want to fire up the engine, get out and check at the front underside of the seat. There should be a brown/red 2-pin plug which should be at 12v when the heated seat button's switched on. If it is, you need a new seat because the elements are apparently too difficult to replace.

Which fan are you talking about? The climate control blower? My dads exec had a burnt connector too. I took it out and soldered it on, but it's since gone intermittent again. He's getting the blower from my old tubby later this week before I scrap it.

The sampling fan welly spoke of is in the overhead cluster. See my HOWTO on how to access it and be aware you'll probably need to shell out £7ish for a new light.

I would stick with peugeot temperature sensors as everything's calibrated to its resistance curve. You'll likely have a hell of a job trying to botch something together to match it. A replacement pug one will be fine to throw in without touching anything else

[Smelliot]

Well, all I know so far is the seat buttons light up when pressed, so I assume power is getting to them. I'll find the plugs and give them a test then. I'm supprised both of them have gone, but hey. It's not much of a biggie as I personally wouldn't use them myself, I always like to be cold, but for passengers or other drivers, it might be a nice touch.

I was talking about the climate control blower. I took the carpet from under the dash and it was a bit of a mess under there. It had stopped, even with manual up to max. A good bang made it work again, so I investigated and it was bad connections on the stepper plug into the fan. But all the connectors and whatnot from the main feed are all slightly melted and chared from too much current for the wire and plugs. So, I gave them a bit of a clean up and all has been ok "touch wood" with that area.

Had a search and can't seem to find your how to guide for the sampling fan, would you be able to slap a link in here? Ta

And you are right, best stick with the pug sensor even though it is at stealers price

[mjb]

Well, all I know so far is the seat buttons light up when pressed, so I assume power is getting to them.

The light is fed from a different circuit. If it were the same, then they wouldn't light up if your seats weren't heating...

I'll find the plugs and give them a test then. I'm supprised both of them have gone, but hey. It's not much of a biggie as I personally wouldn't use them myself, I always like to be cold, but for passengers or other drivers, it might be a nice touch.

On a sub-zero morning you'd kill for the heating! Been there done that, not been able to sit back until I was half way (25 miles) to work...

Had a search and can't seem to find your how to guide for the sampling fan, would you be able to slap a link in here? Ta

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