Mk3 MX-5 - heater/fan/demist controls not working
Discussion
Hoping someone can help. Other half returned from work this evening with her pout on as the heating in her car wasn't working. I had a look around and it appears that the three controls for the fans, temperature and rear window heater/deicer thing have stopped working.
I pulled and checked the fuses for everything that seemed to describe any part of AC or heating in the manual, both in the cabin and under the bonnet but they all seem to be fine (about half a dozen in total). Having said that, the fact that the controls just don't seem to do anything makes me think that if it is a fuse gone then it's not for something as obvious as A/C or heating.
One other thing I noticed, although it may or may not be related - when I was pulling fuses in the compartment in the passenger footwell I noticed that some of them seemed to be a bit wet, with a slightly sticky but mostly odourless liquid. Could we be looking at a broken heater matrix? Possibly shorted something out?
Car is a 56-plate mk3, non-aircon.
I pulled and checked the fuses for everything that seemed to describe any part of AC or heating in the manual, both in the cabin and under the bonnet but they all seem to be fine (about half a dozen in total). Having said that, the fact that the controls just don't seem to do anything makes me think that if it is a fuse gone then it's not for something as obvious as A/C or heating.
One other thing I noticed, although it may or may not be related - when I was pulling fuses in the compartment in the passenger footwell I noticed that some of them seemed to be a bit wet, with a slightly sticky but mostly odourless liquid. Could we be looking at a broken heater matrix? Possibly shorted something out?
Car is a 56-plate mk3, non-aircon.
Raffles said:
The fan on my Mk3.5 got really soft and pathetic. The dealer plugged in their computer to the ECU and did something to make it back to normal. I don't know if your car will maybe need something similar...
Thanks for the suggestion but don't think that's it - the fans just won't come on at all, none of the controls on the heating/fan section of the center console respond whatsoever. They are still illuminated but they just don't do anything. If I press the center section of one of them to switch on the rear window heater the little LED won't come on and the window doesn't heat.I was thinking that maybe a connector had come loose from the back of the control panel but given that the controls are still illuminated but just don't do anything I'm doubting that now too.
True, and there is a fuse for "illumination" according to the manual - but I found a photo on mx5nutz when looking for a guide to accessing the back of that panel and there appeared to be only one cable connector. I took that to mean that if the illumination on that panel was working correctly then this cable must still be connected - but that's assuming that although the controls and the illumination are on separate circuits/fuses, both circuits are connected to the panel through the same cable.
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