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Good day.
I need help with my 05 C240 HVAC stepper motor, as you all may know there is a common issue with the arm being badly made and braking by just looking at it wrong.
I have gotten most of my dash removed but I am stuck.
As you can see this is where I've gotten so far.
Not sure if you looked at this link, but this should at least give you a bit more insight.
You seem to be describing 2 problems. The broken linkage problem applies to the linkages attached to lower air motors (blows air to the driver's and passenger's legs). These are an extremely common failure point. The defroster motor failing (not the linkage) is also common.
In theory any of the motors (your model will have 6) can fail, but for some reason the most common motor failures seem to be the lower L (blows air to the driver's legs), followed by defrost. Notice that I am talking about the motors themselves (the internal gears strip) and not the linkages. To save yourself some pain, I highly recommend replacing these 2 motors at the bare minimum. The dealer usually recommends replacing all 6 motors at the same time because of the labour required, but that is up to you.
Looking at the photo, you're about halfway there in terms of disassembly if you're trying to reach the defroster motor. You still need to remove 1) the glove box (remove the panel between the radio and glove box first, it just pops off), 2) radio cradle, 3) instrument cluster, 4) steering column (just remove it off the mounting point, no need to pull it out of the car though you may want to remove the steering wheel so you have more space), 5) A-pillar trim (they just pop off when pulled) and 6) upper dash (there are 2 hidden screws at the ends of the defrost vents near the A-pillars, each one covered by a plastic panel).
Do not stick the key in the ignition if an airbag is disconnected, or you will trigger a SRS code which can only be cleared by a commercial grade code reader (indie or dealer).
The defrost motor is located behind the instrument cluster. It can be seen and touched once the cluster is removed, but there is no way to reach one of the 3 screws without tearing apart the entire dash.
The good news is that the defroster motor is by far the hardest motor to reach of the bunch, so hopefully you won't need to do this again for a while.
Last edited by slammer111; 08-08-2021 at 08:29 AM.