2000 Passat GLX sedan (B5) Climatronic problem

Owned the car since new. I was never impressed by the automatic climate control system, but it did the job. It does look nice too. However, as time's gone by, it is starting to get pretty temperamental. I try to defend the thing to my wife (she's the primary driver) but she's about had it with the Climatronic.

The unit acts like the internal temp sensor is not working right, or like a heat control valve is very sticky. Symptoms are that in general, I have to overcompensate when adjusting the 'desired temp setting'. If I just set it at 70F and forget about it, the car is never comfortable (sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold)

On a long trip, it's more noticeable because even though the temp of the inside of the car may have more or less settled down, I have to toggle back and forth between like 72F, and 66F. If I leave it alone (like on

66F) then after awhile, the car will get too cold/too hot.

I generally adjust things like this in 1-degree increments and wait awhile between adjustments. These days, I adjust and adjust and nothing much happens until I get to around 72F, and then WHAM, quite a bit of heat.

Are there common failures, or commonly known issues?

Thanks, Arthur

Nothing common and failures are far and few. That said the unit can be scanned for fault codes and to check sensors and motors. Also, when was the last time the pollen filter was changed???

"Arthur Russell" wrote in message news:yYI4e.15969$db.9603@trndny07...

Arthur

The climatronic can be put in diagnostic mode and tell you various sensor details. You can get it to tell you the interior temperature which would confirm if this is at fault.

Try this link

for more info. Also as already said make sure your pollen filter has been changed.

Paul

wrote

Thanks guys. I should have replied sooner, anyway...

Yes, the pollen filter's been replaced. It's amazing how badly the tecchs can screw that up, when I did it myself I removed the mangled and torn filter that the dealer had put in as part of the 20k. Now I admit I had to screw around for awhile before I figured out how to get it in without screwing it up, but I don't replace these as part of my job! I'm done complaining now.

So, some time's past now. We just bought an Audi A4 wagon, which went to my wife, so now I'm the primary user of the Passat. And, I still notice this issue with the Climatronic.

I'm planning to build a "low tech" version of the ODB2-serial converter, and use the free version of ROSS-TECH's tool (maybe play with some of the stuff on

Until then, I won't be able to scan for fault codes. I suppose a sensor could have failed, but I certainly don't hear any binding or laboring of the motors/ventilation doors in the dash. All sounds fine. I like the idea of reading the measured interior temp. I will give it a try. I've put the unit in to diag mode before, but only to play with.

I'll post back with results if they're interesting.

-Arthur

Paul Edwards wrote: