c5 Heater fault

[Rick in Nott's]

Hi all.

My first post here, as my post count suggests.

I'm not savvy with a name for the fault I have, so I'm hopeful someone will be able to help, or even post some links to point me in the right direction.

My problem is with the climate control in my 06 c5 1.6hdi.
For reasons best known to itself, it has decided to stop outputting warm air on the drivers side, and instead chooses to freeze my bits off and blind me by having a constantly misted windscreen.
The passenger side works fine, and the fan output from the drivers side also seems fine, just cold! very cold infact!
I like this car. But I feel like it's not mutual. I mean, why break in the middle of winter?
Any suggestions?
Is it a P.I.T.A to fix etc?

Thanks in advance.

Rick.

[triumphtoledo]

It's either a faulty mixer motor or a heater flap has broken up inside the heater box, which is a dash-out job to fix. I have this task to look forward to come the summer on my wife's C5 VTR (05 reg)

R

[Rick in Nott's]

Sounds about right.

Thanks for the reply fella. Just knew this was one of those jobs where you save loads of bits

[Rick in Nott's]

Has anyone got experience of what this might cost at a garage?
I am no stranger to tools, but have barely enough time for my own work. Let alone taking dash boards out!
I'm guessing this is not a quick job?

[mooseshaver]

My father in law has been quoted £300 for labour if its just the flap motor and I think £60 for part.
If its the actual heater box it's well over £1000. That's just a normal garage not a dealer.
His is a vtr of similar vintage.

[BigBadBob]

Somewhat coincidentally, I have the exact same fault developed these last few days on an 06 C5 1.6HDI also. I would be very interested to hear how you have got on?

From my research, it seems most likely to be the flap shaft which is known to break.
There have also been flap motors with faulty splines, although as far as I can tell this is more associated with the earlier pre-facelift C5s.
If it were the motor the repair is less painful as the motor can be replaced with the dash in situ. I can tell you from my investigation, you need to be something of a contortionist and require a 5.5mm spanner which I have had to search out today (not yet used it). If you remove the motor and discover the problem lies with the flap shaft, you are faced with having either a dash out repair (sounds very expensive, but would like to hear from anybody else how much this is likely to cost) or (as luck would have it for somebody living in Notts) there is a garage in Derby who have developed a 'keyhole surgery' type technique where they do not remove the dash, but cut a hole in the housing to reveal the flap shaft and perform a repair which they claim is better than replacement. I have enclosed their link below. They quoted me a price for this repair of about £350.
Link for the garage in Derby http://www.eurocarcare.net/faults.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If anybody knows of a garage closer to Devon that is able to do this type of repair, I would be very interested to hear.