Cold Aircon

[paddy81 Member Find all posts View Profile Close paddy81]

I'm really keen to fix mine to guys but I am not that good with these things? Is there a guide for dummys on this? Or could you put up some clear pics on how to do it maybe because if I can see what I need to do I will work it out from there but without pics it does my head in!

[adrian5800 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close adrian5800]

Hi Adrian, sorry forgot to ask, I have speaker wire which I used for my home theater set up but is probably what I would class as heavy duty (probably triple the thickness of say the speaker wire in the car), I also have a spare wiring loom 7 core to suit a trailer so dont mind using a couple of strands from that ?? If not Ill just duck up and get a metre of standard speaker wire, What do you recomend ?? Cheers Steve

Hi Steve
The speaker wire you have will be fine, I would solder the joins to the pot and the thermistor though if you can. My AC is running great - with the pot you can trim the setting down to whatever you want, mine is set to just above 0 deg C before it cuts out and cuts in around 3 deg C.

Paddy
I will pull my glove box out this weekend, take some pics and post them here. It's pretty simple to do.

Cheers

Ades

[paddy81 Member Find all posts View Profile Close paddy81]

Hey Adrian
I really appreciate that it would be good thanks! I have a couple of weeks off so once the pics are up I've got time to give it a crack!!

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Hi there Adrian, cheers mate. Going away tomorrow so will be back tuesday, Im going to give my'n a crack then. Looking forward to having nice cold aircon ready for next summer lol......I will also take pics as I go..........Cheers again, Steve

[adrian5800 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close adrian5800]

Here's the photos I promised..

As you can see I set my pot about 9.5k ohm to get the desired result, YMMV as it depends on the resistance of the thermistor in your vehicle. Just solder two wires to the pins on the pot (the centre pin and one of the outer pins) and mount it in the owners manual slot in the glovebox. Connect the wires to the thermistor wires so the pot is in parallel to the thermistor.
Paddy, you will need to check the temp of the air from the vent isn't too low or the evaporator will freeze and you won't get any airflow after a while.

Cheers

Ades

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Cheers Adrian, have two more questions, sorry. I know at one end to solder one wire to the centre terminal and the other wire to either one of the outside terminals. Now the other end where it gets soldered to the thermister wiring, doess it matter which way around they get soldered. So in other words say the wire thats connected to the centre terminal of the pot, if you follow that wire down to the other end near the thermistor wire, is there a positive or negative on the original thermister wire ?? or do you just solder them to either one dosent matter ?? (obviously solder both wires to the two original wires) Sorry for the question but dont want to fry anything. Also in your picture you show the 9.5k ohm is showing. I presume you got this reading by putting one of your probes to the centre conection of the pot and the other one to either of the outer terminals and then by turning the dial either left or right will either give you a higher or lower ohm's reading ?? Sorry again for the questions. I suppose really I dont need to get a reading I can just adjust the dial once up and running and set my temp by the outlet temp of the vents. Its the wiring I want to get right. Cheers Steve

[paddy81 Member Find all posts View Profile Close paddy81]

Steve you beat me to that question!

[adrian5800 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close adrian5800]

Guys
It doesn't matter which pins you solder to on the pot, so long as you use the centre one and one of the outer ones. Which ever one of the outer ones you use it just means that when the pot shaft is rotated one way the resistance will rise or fall. Likewise it doesn't matter which terminal gets connected to the wires on the thermistor either.

To connect the wires, remove the glovebox and the black plastic shroud behind it, carefully pop out the thermistor holder in the hvac unit and disconnect the white connector. Cut back some of the green sleeve to expose enough of the black wire to join to. Use a sharp knife to cut back the insulation on the black wires (carefully - not to cut through the wire) for about 25mm on each. Bare about the same length on the wires you are going to use and wrap that end around the black bared wire - neatly so you don't get any ends jutting out. Solder the join(s) and wrap with a short length of insulation tape on each join.

Let me know how you go

Ades

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Champion, will let you know how I go. Am doing it tomorrow.....Thanks Heaps Adrian......Cheers Steve

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Well all was going well, I for some reason could not get the wires to solder to the pots little probes and in the end I busted one, so went back to jcar and went to get another one, told the bloke due to my large fingers I had extreme difficulty getting the wires in place plus solder at the same time, so he gave me a different type of thing but still had the same specs as the little green one. Was just that it was bigger to but same ohm's etc. Got it home wired it all up, great all working, nice and cold, cycling between 1 and 2.5 thought fantastic but when I went to put the thing in the glovebox for some reason the thing broke, so pissed off so went and got another one, wired it all up exactly the same but its doing nothing ?? aircon running its old self. Now either its a dodgy pot or Ive done some thing wrong ?? but I doubt it, couldnt go wrong with the wiring really, one to the middle connection on pot, the other one to either outer conection, the other end just plit and plice solder both wires to each wire from the thermistor. Now when I put the second one in all I had to do was re solder the two wires on the pot other end was already done and working at the time. So the only thing I can think is this second pot is dodgy. So will get another on the way home tomorrow and try again. So annoyed I didnt try the second one before I put it back to gether again............Cheers Steve

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

This is the newer one

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG] First picture remove kick tray up under neath, then remove glove box lid including the little retractable string that stops the lid slaming open, then remove the screws to allow plastic insert that lid was connected to be removed, then where my finger is pointing this wire is from the switch for the glovebox light, the other wire hanging down is for the light itself these need to be disconected, then you need to remove the black pipe outlet for the heater vent to floor

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]The green wire is then pulled out of its holder and the joint disconected, then need to remove some of the green insulation plastic (about 2 inches) then you need splice the two wires and solder your two wires (one to each), then I set the pod about 1/2 way and started car turned on aircon, fan on two and held revs at 2000rpm and then adjusted pod to get the set point of 1 on the temp guage at vents as in pic. Then put the white plastic holder back in place.........

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG] First pic is just me holding the pot, the second is where it is mounted in the glove box in where the log books are normally kept, the last picture is the back of the unit with wires held in place using cable ties.........Hope this helps

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Ok sorry forgot to re post after replacing dodgy pot. All great. I have since learnt how to solder (thanks jcar lol) Hold the soldering iron on the pot contacts for 10 seconds, melt some solder onto contacts, place wire ontop of solder on contacts reheat again for 10 seconds, take away soldering iron hold wire in place till it cools, all done. Do you think I could do that before ?? Bloody hell some thing so simple yet I was having all sorts of drama's, so anybody wanting to use the small pot then go for it even with big fingers, It all comes down to know how to solder it, I had no friggin idea lol....Anyway aircon is fantastic can I say, first I had it set a bit to cold and was running at -1 to +2, so turned the dial a bit and now running at +2 to +4 and then back to +2 again and so on. Now just have to wait till summer to use it, dam... Have been trialing it since last post and had it on yesterday again to try it again, bloody hell was freezing. One thing you do need to do is drive it for 10 mins or more to get a proper fine tuning due to the vents, tubes etc need to cool down properly to get the correct outlet temp. Can I just say a big thanks to Adrian for fix with this issue. While mine was still not to bad at 6c I like my aircon cold so I know its working and on a 40c day its going to cool especially not having rear aircon, so again thanks to Adrian for his knowledge in this type of electronics...........Cheers Steve