Help - I have a climate control problem and need some advice

[ManCalledHorse]

Hi All,

I've just come across this site so sorry if this is posted in the wrong place.

I've had a disagreement with my local Peugeot garage about a problem I've had with my climate control that was repaired around 4 years ago and I believe hasn't been working properly since. To cut a long story short (and you can imagine after 4 years it could be quite long) I believe that the fan speed isn't working correctly and certainly it hasn't worked the same post repair as pre-repair.

For the moment I'd like your help to establish whether I am correct when I say there is a fault or whether the garage are correct in saying there isn't. My 406 is a 2002 executive HDi 136 estate with the climate control.

Prior to the repair when I pressed the 'automatic visibility programme' (ie the screen demister) the fans used to make the same noise as if i'd set the fan speed to 3, possibly 4. Since the repair I get what I would call a gentle breeze. Similarly when in auto mode if I decreased the required temperature significantly (for example to the lowest value of 14 degrees) the fans would speed up (and I believe I had the same effect if I increased it to 26-27 degrees), now post repair the fans never get faster than 'a gentle breeze'. If I manually adjust the fans then there is no problem - I get the speed I am expecting.

I think that the fan speed is no longer working correctly. The garage told me today that the system must have been faulty prior to them fixing it. So - who is correct? I'd be grateful if someone could let me know that I'm not going mad. If I'm not going mad I'd be very, very grateful to get some evidence that I can present to the garage showing them how it should work (ie a video with some sound). But in any case at least some indication of my mental health would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!

[Doggy]

Hi and welcome aboard.

Excellent choice of vehicle there.

I think you're right in your description, but there are a couple of scenarios where the climate control doesn't always do what you expect. For example, if heating is required, but the coolant tempreture is <70 degrees, it is relauctant to run the fan on anything other than slow speed. Similarly, I've had the situation where you get in the car with two soggy dogs in mid-downpour and you can't get it to clear the screen without overiding the fan speed to high.

Another common problem is fluff blocking the cabin temperature sensor, looky here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8793&start=30

Fan speed controllers do fail, but yours must be OK if you can still get all the speeds manually.

Is your a/c still producing chilled air in reasonable quantities?

[ManCalledHorse]

Thank you for the response (I bought the car from my dad several years ago - we've had around 150K miles of pleasure from this car between us ).

Yes everything appears to be working correctly with the climate control (including the temperature) except for the fan speed which never speeds up on its own accord. I thought that the demister button is the obvious place to demonstrate that's it's not working correctly to the garage, but also on automatic I can turn it down to the minimum or up the the maximum temperature (or anywhere in between) and the fans now never kick in. In fact I quite often drive round with the demister button on as I forget to turn it off but as I say the fans never kick in.

Manually adjusting the fans works fine (which is what I've been doing since the garage fixed my original problem (they replaced a module)). Do you think it could be that the cabin sensor is faulty or perhaps hasn't been connected properly? The original problem I had was that I was driving home one night and mid way through the journey the fans came on full blast and wouldn't turn off. I phoned the RAC and they were able to talk me through removing a fuse which turned off the fans completely until it went into the garage.

I had wondered if they had fitted the correct module but it sounds less likely to be the problem from what you are saying?

I'm going into the garage next week (where I'm hoping to get them to admit that there is a problem so that we can start heading in the direction of getting it fixed) so all information you can give will help.

Many Thanks,
Paul.

[Doggy]

It certainly sounds like it's not working properly, but it's not easy to pinpoint what's wrong.

Do you know which 'modue' was replaced?

[gray]

Does your display read the correct outside temperature? Because this will effect the automatic portion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ManCalledHorse]

It certainly sounds like it's not working properly, but it's not easy to pinpoint what's wrong.

Do you know which 'modue' was replaced?

I don't know which module it was that they replaced, I'll ask them when I pop in. The last person that I spoke to at the garage (who did actually agree with me in that he thought it was wrong) said it was located somewhere where it was awkward to get at. We were sat in the car at the time and I can't remember if he pointed somewhere around the dash or behind the control panel, but it would be somewhere around there. I guess that probably doesn't help much.

[Welly]

I only ever found the cabin fan would go the 'full beans' in the summer; you'd jump in the car, Climate was on 'Auto' and if the outside temperature was above 20 deg C then the fan would go mental until the cabin cooled down.

In the winter the fan was more sedate (would wait for the coolant temp to rise) but was able to deliver warm air effectively without blasting you too much.

There's a small air sampler fan in the roof console and this can jam up so worth checking this too.

[ManCalledHorse]

Does your display read the correct outside temperature? Because this will effect the automatic portion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, I did double check and as far as I can see it's not wildly out. I don't have another thermometer but I believe it's correct to within one or two degrees.

[ManCalledHorse]

I only ever found the cabin fan would go the 'full beans' in the summer; you'd jump in the car, Climate was on 'Auto' and if the outside temperature was above 20 deg C then the fan would go mental until the cabin cooled down.

In the winter the fan was more sedate (would wait for the coolant temp to rise) but was able to deliver warm air effectively without blasting you too much.

There's a small air sampler fan in the roof console and this can jam up so worth checking this too.

Thanks, that's what Doggy was also suggesting and I'll mention that to the garage. If they admit it's not working we can start to look at things like this as possible causes but it's really difficult to progress until they admit it's not working. Your comment regarding the fan going mental is exactly the sort of evidence I need to present at the moment. Mine has been stuck on 'gentle breeze' for 4 years.

Interestingly I think the demister is turning on a fan speed of two when I press it. That makes me think that something is just not sending the 'go for fan speed three' message. Hopefully the roof console is the cause and not the module they replaced as I was told in the last conversation with the garage that they don't make the parts anymore and there was only a year warranty on the part they replaced (I'd divulge more of that conversation but I'm trying to stay clam - now where is that angry smilie )