Replacing A-Class air vent stepper motor

[marksmith]

Hello all,

My girlfriend's 2003 A168(I think) A-Class has recently started making a banging noise when first switched on, accompanied by a faint whirring. Quick bit of investigation tracked this down to the fresh air / recirc selection, and a quick google shows broken stepper motors to be a fairly common prolem on Mercs of this vintage.

Can anyone give any advice on replacing it please? First thing would be how to get to it - is it a case of dismantling trim under the dash, or something else? Where do I start, to avoid needlessly dismantling the wrong bits? Is it a nightmare job or a 15 minuter? I'm reasonably handy with a set of spanners, but I've done very little on this car before (just standard servicing) as it hasn't needed it.

Oh, and it's my first post here so hello. I searched for the information above but if I've missed it, apologies, and a link would be great.

Thanks very much!
-Mark

 

[npuk]

Best site for info on the old a-class: Albert Rowe, Lofty's homepage. A-class info, wine making, solar panels, scotland, canada rockies, orchids.

 

[marksmith]

Thanks npuk. Looks like there's a lot of info on that site - all almost entirely unhelpfully indexed

Will dig through.

 

[CMR]

Wow that is some site! Would love to see the version for a C Class stepper