We just picked up our 1996 Audi A6 quattro a couple of months ago and it was working fine considering the age, but just in the past couple of weeks something stopped working in fact no matter what buttons we push on the climate control we cannot direct air through the defrost or onto the floor. We have loads of heat, it heats up very nicely in fact. The climate control works as far as setting the temperature, And when it gets warm in the car the fan automatically turns itself down etc. But with no heat on the floor and living in northern michigan my feet feel like icecubes on longer trips, and when you live in northern michigan to go anywhere is a long trip. Any help on some shortcuts we can check out first before tearing things apart would be appreciated.

 

Air flow is directed by flaps controlled by electrical motors. For this/car age - if a motor fails, then flap stops in a certain position.

On a running car press and hold - arrow up and car buttons. Temperature monitor will show 01. Press car to enter this channel - it will show climate errors. Google for specific numbers.

And then there are options - replacing the motor, cleaning the motor, etc.

 

assuming it is the motors that need replacing, how easy or difficult is it to get to them? Does the whole unit need to come out from under the hood or can they be accessed another way?
Thanks to anyone one out there with suggestions.

 

Footwell/defroster is behind the radio - so you have to take off the central console. Could be relatively easy done with ELSA.

But please please check errors first.

 

Thanks for all your advise and help so far. I did what you said about accessing the codes and this is what I found.
The error codes listed were:
8.7 Temperature regulator flap, sporadic block
11.5 Central Flap static block
13.7 Footwell/Defroster flap, sporadic block
15.7 Air flow flap, sporadic block

So does this mean that I am pretty much not getting an easy fix here? I suppose I wouldn't be so lucky as to have a simple or inexpensive fix. Any advise is well appreciated.

 

Well... I did a very quick search and found http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Audi-100-A6-S6...item23045dfd0a

This will give you an idea how the motor look like.

There are two options

1. there is procedure of cleaning the motor which most likely fix sporadic blocks. You have to take out a motor, open the box (see the link above), clean the motor contact brushes. In this option you would need to connect VAG-com to the A/C and do so called calibration. Look through http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeyn4dp/s...ervorepair.pdf

2. buy new motors and replace - I could not tell you that it was easy to find NEW motors for my A6 93'. You will have to calibrate in option 2 as well.

 

Thanks for all the help you have given so far. It has been quite nice to have someone getting me pointed in the right direction. I sure hope that those around you in your life appreciate your knowledge. But as I am reading your last post about cleaning the motors and needing to do recalibration it brings another question to mind...........
We obviously bought this used, from a "so called" repair man. I think he might like to think he is. Anyway, he told us that when we bought the car it had a new battery in it. This "new" battery lasted about two days before the car was dead and we needed to replace it. I am not complaining as the price was very affordable. But my question, are there certain steps that need to be taken after replacing a battery? Something that one would not usually consider beyond resetting the clock, but with so much stuff on these cars being tied into electronics we were just wondering.
As for cleaning the motors, that is actually a breeze once out of the unit. We have a machine shop and have similar situation with our cnc lathes, we have to periodically pull and clean the servo connected our x axis motor, all fun and games...........

 

Hi! I've helped several my friends with the servo motor failures - it looks like it is sort of common issue with fully automatic A/C. No worries, it is not that HUGE deal. But when you repair this - it so much better than adjusting heating manually (comparing to models without climate control)!

It is not related to battery. Battery will reset radio (from what I know).

 

Im getting a
A/C Compressor speed in rpm (Equals Engine Speed x 1.28) and 2 sporadic blocks how do i fix them