W169 Upgrade Air Conditioning System to Thermotronic?

[GLK]

A two-fold question really:

• How feasible is it to do a full and proper upgrade from the standard air conditioning system to the Thermotronic on a 2006 C169 Avantgarde SE?
  
• If I only swap the control units, will I retain the functionality of the current standard a/c system?

 

[whitenemesis]

Did this in my 2005 S203, well swapped the control unit. Original functionality retained, nothing added. A slight improvement in system hysteresis but mainly just cosmetic, the digital controls look better IMHO.

If you want true Thermatronic climate you'll need to add extra air distribution flaps, additional carbon air filter and sun sensor. Major dashboard out job.

 

[GLK]

Excellent! :bannana:

I was really hoping to hear that. I can imagine the 'proper' upgrade would be prohibitevely expensive, and to be perfectly honest, don't need that even at a reasonable price.

However shallow this might sound - the nicer look and digital controls, is all I'm after

Did you have to change plugs, or was it simple 'one out, another in' job?

 

[whitenemesis]

Straight swop but you may need to normalise the flaps using STAR after the swap. Some, me included, found the air distribution erratic and diminished. A quick session on STAR had it sorted. If you later have a diagnosis done it will report errors with the climate control and certain (non-existent) flaps. This simply because various parts of the Thermotrinic system are missing.
My dealership reported this at each service but they were fine about it when I explained the swap.

I should also mention that, in the case of the 203 maybe others, there were two part numbers for the Thermotronic unit and only one would work correctly once installed. It was impossible to know which beforehand and was trial and error.

 

[richard]

We've looked at doing this on Alfies last W245 (Same as W169). The control units are wired completely different - in the end we decided we'd have to replace the whole aircon unit (and decided not to, even though we took the dashboard out to swop the interior for a colour Alfie preferred !!)

At a minimum the connectors are very different and you'd have to work out what could be rewired

Cheers

Richard

 

[whitenemesis]

So, the 169 is very different from the 203.

My apologies for misleading you....

 

[GLK]

We've looked at doing this on Alfies last W245 (Same as W169). The control units are wired completely different - in the end we decided we'd have to replace the whole aircon unit (and decided not to, even though we took the dashboard out to swop the interior for a colour Alfie preferred !!)

At a minimum the connectors are very different and you'd have to work out what could be rewired

Thanks Richard, I suspected as much, as I have now looked at pictures of different units and can see that connectors are not the same.

Is it possible to get detailed pinouts of a/c and thermotronic switch packs?

So, the 169 is very different from the 203.
My apologies for misleading you....

Not at all, very grateful for advice & information - I might still play with different connectors, if I can get pinouts for both types