Finally, a working blower motor

My story of fixing the W126 climate control can be summed up by:   If everything points to a problem with an expensive part, don’t waste your time trying to replace the cheaper parts around it in a futile hope it will solve the problem!

After trying a used Climate Control Unit, new fan resistor etc, I finally bit the bullet and bought a rebuilt climate control unit.   This solved the problem.   In retrospect I probably didn’t need to buy the resistor and I certainly didn’t need the used CCU.     It also pays to shop around as a rebuilt CCU was much cheaper directly from the source than the usual online parts vendors.   I got my from ProgRama Inc.

This job should have been simple.     As I discovered earlier, the blower fans are different LHD to RHD.   This meant I re-used the housing from my old one.   What I didn’t realize until I had it all fitted was that the fan direction is obviously different too.   My new blower was blowing, but no air was coming out.    In the end I had to reverse the terminals of the controller to get air flow through the vents.

The aftermarket controller was slightly different at the back as well, so I had to file down part of my housing to make it fit.

The next steps will be to have the new A/C compressor I have purchased fitted.   This is not something I am equipped to do myself.   In any case, you need a licence to handle refrigerant in Australia.

Overall I like the W126 climate control system when it works.   However, I would have preferred a system with manual climate control.   Mercedes-Benz Australia to my knowledge ordered all the 2nd generation models with Automatic Climate control.   This would mean finding a private import with a manual set up.   A rather difficult task.