HVAC control unit is DEAD. Common problem?

[Mr Paul]

I got in my car tonight to drive home from work and went to turn on my heat, and nothing happened.

Symptoms. All the buttons will light up when I turn on my headlights. The display screen is completely dead. No amount of button pushing brings up anything on the display and I don't get any amount of air flowing through the vents. I checked all the fuses with a test light and everything is good to go.

It'll be mild here for another couple days but I'm sure it will cool back down here soon where I need my heat. Does this sound like a bad control unit?

Thanks.

[Mr Paul]

Assuming this is the problem does anybody know somebody that has one of these for sale? I've read threads where people are buying 12 button control panels for $10 off of forum classifieds but I can't find anything. I've found a brand new one for 375 on eBay but I'm not going to pay that much. My last resort is to buy one from car-part.com. Thanks.

[Johnmadd]

I suspect a loose wire or cut wire, but ultimately I suspect fuse. Try and switch another known good fuse of the same rating/color and see if it works, sometimes the tool used to test is wrong.

[terraphantm]

This happened to me once. I unplugged the fuse for a few minutes, put it back in, and the unit started working again. Didn't think too much of it. Didn't give me any problems again (sold the car about a year later)

[Mr Paul]

This happened to me once. I unplugged the fuse for a few minutes, put it back in, and the unit started working again. Didn't think too much of it. Didn't give me any problems again (sold the car about a year later)

HA! I just went and tried this and it actually worked! For anybody searching that runs into this problem the AC has 3 fuses associated with it and the Heater has three fuses associated with it. For me it was the 7.5 amp fuse in slot 68 that did it. We'll see how long this lasts, but I'm happy this worked at least for the time being. Thanks terraphantm.

[danewilson77]

Win.