Stuttgarten

How did you install rear one? Did you have to remove center console?

Mackhack

It won’t matter since the rear controls won’t work as a 4-zone in a 2-zone car anyways. The flaps are missing, error codes are set and nothing in the rear will work.

Similarly in the front. You windshield might fog up or won’t clear properly since flaps won’t be actuated. It’s a nice upgrade for looks only but functionality wise it’s garbage when I really think about 12 years later. If I would do it again I would do it right, meaning dash board out, new HACV Box out, new one in, new harnesses, new sensors, new ducts for the doors, new b-pilar covers, coding it.

Vic Cayme

Hi Charles! Thanks! The digital climate control I have has the circulation button and defrost button as a toggle button so I can’t press both at the same time.


Would you happen to have a picture of the cable for the rear climate control?

Thanks so much. I really love how it turned out. I’m halfway there!!!😁

charlesb2003

No I did not have to remove the center console. If you have an earlier model with the clamshell armrest it's not too hard. Not sure how to do it on the later models with the breadbox center console.

First, open the lower compartment and remove the false floor. Once you pull the felt lining out you'll see two rectangular holes on either side near the front. Just use a screwdriver and pry up on these and it should pop out. Then remove the piece of trim at the rear of the compartment that the two coiled wires go down into. You are going to feel like it's going to break but it won't. Just stick your screwdriver in where one of the coiled wires goes down and carefully but firmly pry forwards and it will unsnap. Then you will be able to see a single screw going from the rear of the armrest into the trim panel below the rear vents that contains the rear ashtray. Remove that screw and then you can pry off the lower trim with the ashtray. This will allow you to access the two lower screws that hold the rear vents in place. Loosen those (they won't come all the way out which is by design) and then use a tiny flathead screwdriver to depress the two tabs inside the vent near the top and the whole thing should snap out.

I referenced the following video on YouTube for the process, but it does NOT show the removing of the screw inside the center console. If you don't remove this screw first you risk breaking things. I was lucky that I did not.

charlesb2003

You are correct about the rear controls not being functional. They will light up and display temperature, and even allow for the adjustment of the temperature on either side, but they will not actually cause anything to happen. It is purely for looks. The reason I did it was to give my rear seat passengers a bit of a placebo effect in thinking they have control of the temperature so they won't always complain about being too cold, and so far it seems to have worked!

As far as the front controls go, everything on mine seems to function as normal. The passenger side air direction control knob does nothing, but besides that the dual zone temperature controls work, defrost works fine, and the driver's side vent position dial controls the vent position for both sides, similar to how they worked with the analog climate controls. I always keep mine set to full auto so this doesn't bother me at all.

One benefit of doing this even if you do not do the "full" swap, is to have access to the hidden menu and see various readings from the climate control without connecting a scan tool. Also I really like the fact that when I get into the car in the hot summer it displays "MAX COOL" on the digital display and blows ice cold for a few minutes before it goes back to normal auto mode. It might be just in my head but it seems to cool quicker and regulate the temperature better in general than the old analog unit. Of course this could be just a bit of the placebo effect working on me.

charlesb2003

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the wire, but it's just a plain black wire that is covered in what looks like heatshrink tubing very similar to the wire that you have now for the lighting on the rear vents. The connectors on the end are black and are a bit wider than the white connector on the lighting wire.

As far as your error, I selected the particular digital climate control unit I have based on numerous posts by others who said their setups were plug and play, and sure enough mine was. I did not have to do anything, it just works. Perhaps some combinations are not compatible, or cannot be reset without coding.

Tschuss_Bill

Old Post, but I thought I'd report that I replaced the 2 zone controller on my 2005 e320CDI with a non US version 2118302390. This is a 2 zone with LED display that does have the 'Rest' button. Most units on Ebay are from Europe, I found one in Canada. Dials are in Celsius. Replacing the old unit also cured the dreaded AC delay and blast of heater air on 'warm' start up. Install was plug and play.

Mackhack

I have the two dials in Fahrenheit if you want to replace yours let me know in a PM.

Isn’t it nice to get from LO to HI and vice versa in about 2 seconds instead of 15 if you keep the button pressed?

Aali1011

I have finally decided to attempt this and I have the new climate control apart but i can't find out how to swap the buttons over. The knob and the rest button are two pieces but i can't for the life of me figure out how to separate the two.

EDIT* Knob and button are 3 pieces. In playing with the button i was able to separate it randomly somehow. But it is a straight forward process and you can swap the dials from your Fahrenheit climate control to Celsius with ease.

Aali1011

Finished the job today. For reference I bought 2118302390. The unit came with some moderate scratches on the screen but i was able to sand them out with 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper then compound and polish. The swapping of the dials was interesting. I am not sure if the differences were on account of the US vs European Market or something else. I swapped the physical dial hardware and left the respecting boards alone. Meaning that the boards that the dials are connected to stayed with their respective HVAC units. The funny thing about this is that I thought that the one without the rest buttom would have a different board behind the button blank, but when you took it apart it had a button on the board. Not sure if you were to carry that board over with a button if that would do anything or not.

Anyhow the dials them selves when you have it remove from the board via the two clips looks like it is one piece. But on the back where it clips into the electrical board if you pull the piece that would make contact with the board it will release the face of the button blank or button. From here you can do your swapping. What was interesting here was that the European HVAC I purchased vs the one from the car the way that the buttons went together was slightly different. Take for example the "AUTO" button. The mounting points for the two buttons was different meaning that you had to swap the button along with the piece that makes contact with electrical board between the dials. One had the mounting point above the text and one below.

Last problem I had was that the Climate Control unit had a stored code for low refrigerant. I had to have someone clear that code to get the A/C to work otherwise I had the AC light blinking 5 times whenever i tried to use it. Beyond that the rest button functions and things are pretty sweet.