W203 Heater Clicking

[martin3554]

So......... I picked up my new car last night which I am really happy with however this morning when I started the car I heard a clicking from around the heater control unit?????

Can anyone help?

 

[nigel cross]

And it stops after 10--20 seconds.
Stepper motor arms, expensive to fit.
Did you buy it from a dealer?
In the end it you can live with it, its only a noise, I think it would cost about£800 plus to Fix at MB, and indie might be cheaper

 

[martin3554]

It lasts for about a minute and the guy i brought it off left this morning to live in china! (you couldn't make that one up!!)

I quess i'll just have to turn the radio up louder when i start the car! lol

 

[matty.13]

Had the same problem . £580 at an indie to fix . Then 2 months later at differnt motor went so i just pulled the cogs off and let my passanger have cold feet .

 

[martin3554]

heater clicking

My heaters getting worse now! i was wondering if i replaced the heating system would this cure it? i've found this on ebay HEATER / HEATING SYSTEM MERCEDES C220CDI - W203 | eBay and have a friend that is willing to replace it?? Help-!!

 

[Agwarn]

Try
The 203 works better after a flap re set now and again

203

To reset heater flaps and actuators

Switch on ignition.

Press recirculated air and defrost buttons on control panel together for longer than 5 seconds.

The LED's in the defrost and recirculated air buttons flash alternately.

Wait until the LED's stop flashing (approx 30 sec) system set to defrost LED on.

Switch off ignition.

After 40 sec re start engine.

This worked for me and other people on this forum.

 

[martin3554]

Cheers Buddy, I'll try this in the morning!

 

[Jpowell79]

Try
The 203 works better after a flap re set now and again

203

To reset heater flaps and actuators

Switch on ignition.

Press recirculated air and defrost buttons on control panel together for longer than 5 seconds.

The LED's in the defrost and recirculated air buttons flash alternately.

Wait until the LED's stop flashing (approx 30 sec) system set to defrost LED on.

Switch off ignition.

After 40 sec re start engine.

This worked for me and other people on this forum.

Will something similar work for a W209 CLK?

I've just bought mine and hear the clunking noise on startup

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Will something similar work for a W209 CLK?

I've just bought mine and hear the clunking noise on startup

Yes, that process for the reset of the flaps is the same for the W209.

 

[Carrsey]

My W209 was doing it when i bought it, the trader said see how it goes and if it drives you mad we will sort it. After two weeks it was a bit of a pain and noticed i was getting no warm air to my feet. Rang trader, who said straight away on saying who i was "is it driving you mad" yes i said, ok leave it with me.. 10 mins later he rang me back, "can you take it in next week" (to a local indie) yes no problem i said, "ok drop it off, he will give you a car to use". Happy days all fixed and all for nothing.. Great service from the trader and the indie..

 

[Auto-mobile]

The reset doesn't fix the broken teeth on the stepper motor I'm afraid.

 

[Carrsey]

Any idea what the cause is ?? Is it just poor quality parts..??

 

[nigel cross]

Any idea what the cause is ?? Is it just poor quality parts..??

MB say no...... but they have resigned them on later models.

 

[Auto-mobile]

Plastic cogs at the end of the day clearly are not up to the job, Mercedes will never admit to anything.

 

[Jpowell79]

anyone have a list of part numbers for these cogs?

If this is such a common fault, maybe someone could arrange for a whole bunch of them to be printed out on a 3d printer to save buying packs of them at a time?


Think I may have found them on another forum:

From MBWORLD.org

"Play with vent selector and feel for air coming out of all vents. Regardless of which vent selector choosen, your foot vent should always be stuck open or stuck closed, signaling a broken footwell flap linkage (A203 830 00 33 - HVAC Control Lever Kit For Left/Right Footwell Flap Levers Contains: 2 Control Levers) which causes the "clicking" sound about every 5 seconds for about a minute at startup. Basically, the Footwell Control Levers are such a common breakage due to the original poor design that Mercedes-Benz sell them separately as a pair.

The other part, A203 830 00 32 (HVAC Linkage Kit For Non-Footwell Flap Operating Levers NOTE: Does not contain the footwell Control Levers).
The A203 830 00 32 contains all HVAC Linkage Kit Flap Operating Levers EXCEPT the footwel flap operating levers; there's about 10-13 little plastic pieces, so if you only need one, you have to buy the entire bag. Mercedes-Benz Stealerships must be making a killing on replacing these parts since each bag contains over 10 pieces and they only need one for each repair but keep the other pieces for later to use on another car but in the meantime charging each repair the full price for this bag of at least 10 pieces.

Your AC not working in the first 20-30 minutes is a separate issue than the footwell vent being stuck open/closed resulting in that clicking at 5 second intervals for first minute at startup. The A203 830 00 32 (10-13 peices of non Footwell linkage) probably won't fix your AC problem but since this 6 hour job will have the dash apart, it might not be a bad idea to replace these parts too.

Remember, its rarely the stepper motor thats broken, its usually one of these plastic linkages."


Just need to find out where I can get some of these now

​

 

[Jpowell79]

Am guessing the bag of parts (non-footwell) will be about £40-£50 from MB, so found a site that sells individual parts from the pack, which is good if you only need a single cog or arm!

Pantri Trading: Search results for: 'A203 830 00 32'

Now I just need to figure out which cog has gone wrong!

 

[Jpowell79]

can anyone recommend an "ebay" diagnostic ODBII solution that would let me confirm which actuator has the problem?

Don't want to take the entire dash out, if it's something I can fix just by removing the glovebox!