190E. Repaired centre cold air vent & now no heat.

[neilrr]

Yesterday I removed the centre-of-the-dash big cold air vent on my W201 190E 2.6. The PO had taken it out & not put it back properly so that I couldn't close it all the way to keep cold air out.

Today I noticed that the heat dials were having no effect & the temperature of the air wasn't changing at any outlet as I dialled in more heat. I'm not sure it's outside air temp, possibly a bit above, but certainly not the raging blast it was before I "fixed" the vent.

I did drop the centre console about an inch when I was doing this vent repair to try to figure out why the console no longer lit up but didn't disconnect anything, at least knowingly.

The engine temperature gauge is reading the same as before so it's not a thermostat, the system is full of coolant & not leaking.

Did I accidently disconnect something? Any ideas?

TIA.

 

[Dec]

Don’t know a 190E but it should be a similar system to a W202.
There are “sticks” sticking out of the back of both dials which will disengage from two other hollow sticks when the centre-of-the-dash is withdrawn, these sticks are levers that open/close/change direction of air into cabin when the dial/s are turned.

If, when the center vent is put back and the dial sticks don’t marry back into the hollow sticks then things won’t work just as you describe.

Dropping the centre console about an inch would be enough to disengage the sticks from each other.

Sorry for the poor description, a picture, which I don’t have, is really needed here.

Dec

 

[Matt45]

When I had mine re-gassed just recently they reset all the temp sensors in each of the outlets. Not sure if yours is the same design but it might be worth asking a dealer or someone. The reset normalises the temp sensors so you get an accurate temp out in line with the temp you selected. Hope this helps.

 

[neilrr]

Thanks, I understand what you mean & know what the 'sticks' are.

 

[Dec]

I was just looking at my own, my discription was from memory, but it seems that the “sticks” are actually only on one dial as depicted at #60. Those two sticks should go into two hollow sticks just behind where the vent was, very fiddley to put back together.

Dec

 

[neilrr]

It was the sticks. I hadn't noticed they were out of their tubes when I put everything back the other day.

Just took it all apart & re-assembled it & it seems to be working OK. Only managed to destroy one knob so all in all a succesful repair!

Thanks everyone.