Climate Control

[tmarx]

I apologize in advance for any grimmacing this causes, but I've read and reread my manual, searched the forum and found lots of information, but I'm still not clear.

My car ('85 Targa) has the two heat/defrost levers (they have a defrost symbol on them and on a plate in the carpet next to the right won), one on each side of the console/ebrake. Pulling them up clearly turns on (and controls the strength of) a fan (one for each lever) that blows hot air through the floor vents and the side dash vents.

I also have what I read to be a climate control dial on the console between those levers and behind the ebrake. It has the settings 0 - 3. It also has a little defroster symbol on it.

I've read that the dial controls servos that affect something or other - and that's my question - what does the dial (practically) do? When I pull the levers, I get hot air of different strengths, but not, it seems, different temperatures. Is the dial supposed to vary the temperature?

In any event, any non-obvious tips on testing whether it is doing what it is supposed to be doing?

Thanks!

BTW - did my first rotor/pad replacement this weekend and the search function here was certainly my friend. If not for it (and you), I'd still be wrestling that wheel bearing dust cover. Whatever those things are made of should be used on armored vehicles.

[Mitch Leland]

Ok, since no one has chimed in on this I'll put my 2 cents in on this for ya. I have an "84" with climate control. The dial between on the console between the seats controls 2 servos that are connected with piano wire that run back to flapper valves in your exhaust system. As you rotate the switch the servos close the flapper valves directing more exhaust heat into the system.

There are two flush doors on the side of the console that will pop off if you want to see if the servos are working, or you can put your car on jack stands and observe the flapper valves when the switch is in the closed and open position. I believe my switch has 9 settings...

I Would release the piano wire at the flapper valve and make sure the valve is working free, lube/oil as necessary. Then adjust the setting so the valve is completely closed when the switch is in the off position so you don't get any leaking hot air.

I replaced the piano wire cables, Pelican Parts carry them. You have to lift the console, but it improved the the way the system worked, plus I knew that I wasn't going to "toast" my servos...

[tmarx]

Thanks Mitch.

[aj88cab]

tmarx, from your description (dial with 0-3) you have "manual heat" in your car. So you do not have the servo control that is in the "auto-heat" cars. The dial controls the speed of the footwell blower fans. the red levers turn on the engine blower and control the amout of hot air, not the temperature. The levers must be "up" and the engine blower running for the footwell blowers to run. Also, the "0" setting on the dial is not "off", it is the same as "1"...a little Porsche trick to confuse us

[darrin]

to further clarify, the levers between your ebrake (and the knob) control whether hot air flows to your climate control system (and its velocity). The red lever on the dashboard portion of the climate control system (the middle lever, if I recall correctly) controls where the hot air goes. If the red lever is all the way to the left (toward the down arrow), hot air is directed to the floor (and side vents), if the red lever is all the way to the right, hot air is directed to the dashboard/center defroster (and side vents).

The blue lever above (or is it below?) the red lever controls fresh (non-heated) air direction

[javadog]

Originally Posted by aj88cab

tmarx, from your description (dial with 0-3) you have "manual heat" in your car. So you do not have the servo control that is in the "auto-heat" cars.

+1. Thanks for clearing up a very common misconception. You saved me some typing...

Since all you can do is adjust the amount of hor air coming in, I'd suggest you use the levers alone, until that amount of heat is not sufficent, then boost it by adjusting the rotary knob. In your area of California, you'll have more heat than you need. You can also use the levers to give one side of the car more heat than the other, to account for personal differences between the driver and passenger. The levers don't have to be adjusted equally. I used to often use just the passenger side one when I was driving by myself and didn't need much heat.

JR

[javadog]

Originally Posted by darrin

The blue lever above (or is it below?) the red lever controls fresh (non-heated) air direction

The lever is black and it's directly above the red-tipped one.

JR

[tmarx]

Thanks everyone - this is very helpful. One question -

Originally Posted by aj88cab

The dial controls the speed of the footwell blower fans.

When I pull either lever, I can hear a blower run. Is this a dash blower only?

Turning the dial is doing nothing, so it sounds like either my footwell fans are dead, I have a bad connection somewhere on the line, or a bad dial/switch.

Thanks again for all the info.

[darrin]

pulling the lever causes the footwell fans to run -- The dial controls how fast the fans will spin when the lever's pulled up. Twisting the dial without pulling up the lever will not cause the fans to spin.