Is there anything out of the ordinary (or fragile) to look out for on the aircon control panel? I'm changing mine over cos it was damaged by theives, and the contacts are bad on the fan, output selectors. I was going to take out the one in the car and leave all the wiring and piping free for the time being to get a new one - probably from whoever wants to give me one cheap! (I'll get back to you RuckusVL). is there some plan for where the small black tubes go? what do they do? flow coolant or something? There are little tags, but they're old and hard to read. And I don't want to get air in the system and as a result damage the compressor. Any help appreciated.. This is the only bit of the dash i'm yet to pull to bits!

The little blacks tubes are vacuum tubes, and they wont affect the compressor. They will howvwer affect the drivability of the car if you just rip it all out and leave them unblocked while u get a new one. It will cause a vacuum loss from the motor and it will run **** house. If you can just make out the numbers on the tubes now, i strongly suggest you get some masking tape and sticking your own bit of tape on with the tube number, cause the original tape is that old and fragile, it will for sure fall off when your fiddling around.... and good luck trying to find out what goes where, short of stuff assing around with all the combinations if they fall off with no numbers... Have fun :P

The small black pipes (I think there is about 5 of them) are just vacuum pipes, 1 in, 4 out. It should be fine to disconect them. When the car is running one of the pipes should be making a hissing noise (sucking vacum) you might want to plug that one up with a bolt or something similar just dont let it get sucked in :?

those little black hoses are numbered 1 to 8, which correspond to the connections where they plug into. they plug into the back of a little control panel, and if u look hard enough on the panel, you can see little numbers on there. they just flow air and direct it through your vents. i'm pretty sure they're the ones your talking about

thanks fellas. I don't think they flow vent air, as they're only like 3 or 4mm diameter. I'll try marking them all. might explain a few things! But where are they connected to the engine? I understand its to open and close flaps to direct air rather than using multiple solenoids, but how does it affect the engine? I tinkered with it and got it working some more, but when you select different vents the engine isn't affected by the movement of the switch, but changes note when the circuit connects.. ( the contacts are dirty and switch damaged - thats why i'm replacing it). Therefore i'd have thought the aircon switch is adjusting idle speed or petrol consumption or something through the computer?! Anymore info greatly appreciated. carcrazy?? is there a EMS pin for this? [BTW i asked this once before.. how possible is it to redirect one vent (and hence switch setting on the control panel) to flow cold air to the airbox?.. bit of a disguised mod don't u think? More power with a/c fan and cooler on full and the output vent flowing into the airbox! perfect for hot summer...] man i'm bored.

one tube comes from the vacuum cannister (ball) into the valve on the back of the a/c controls. the other tubes go to the actuators for the different vents (head, feet, windscreen, etc.) If you disconnect them you will lose vacuum from the one coming from the cannister but i dont think that it would be enough to make a difference but you can plug that one up anyway. If you do end up mixing them up it's a matter of stuffing around until you get them in the right spots and this can take quite a while. Its not hard just a bitch of a job

Dont spose anyone would be able to provide details of which numbers correspond to which vents? All the numbers have fallen off my vacuume tubes, and after having to replace my AC\fan controller panel I havent been able to figure out their correct positions on the rotating controller thingy. Thanks in advance if anyone can help out...

StockCalais: The best and safest way to do it is to leave your current one in until you do the change over. Then you can do the disconnecting and reconnecting one by one. Leaving the old one out for a while is asking for trouble. BTW when you turn on the Air cond the idle does bump up a bit but I can't recall how it's done. If you are very careful you can take the fan switch apart and just clean the connections, same with the vertical slide controls. They end up working like new!