Climatronic - no heat - V85, V68, V71 all failed?

[kiloran]

Climatronic issues with my B5.5 - main symptom is no heat. Given the hot weather we've had not sure how long this has been happening but have a feeling its a progressive failure because last autumn/winter I had issues with the car steaming up which points to a recirc flap issue and for as long as I've owned it I've had occasional ticking/whirring from the glovebox area.

I've tried doing the flap reset with basic settings in VCDS with no luck and if I look at measuring blocks in VCDS I can see that the motors reported as faulty aren't moving to the required position when I operate the controls on the Climatronic.

No other codes from the Climatronic. I removed it this evening and cleaned contacts and checked all the multiplugs were pushed home but still no heat.

I'm wondering - do the below codes mean that all three motors are faulty, or is there another potential cause? I'm considering getting a Climatronic unit to rule that out. I know these motors are a pig of a job to fix and if I have to take it to a garage it's going to be cheaper to buy a new car (approaching 200k miles, scabby paintwork, rusty arches, etc.). Really don't want to do that though as mechanically it should go on for a while yet.

I've seen lots of posts mentioning that you should remove the glovebox to get to the fan motors - is that the case on RHD cars? I've got the airbag disable switch in my glovebox, any risk of throwing an airbag code if I remove the glovebox? To be honest I'll be happy just to get the flap in the hot position with recirc open as that's what I'm going to need for autumn/winter. As it is I won't be able to defog the windscreen without the heater...



3 Faults Found:

00603 - Footwell/defroster Flap Positioning Motor (V85)

37-00 - Faulty

01271 - Positioning Motor for Temperature Flap (V68)

37-00 - Faulty

01274 - Air Flow Flap Positioning Motor (V71)

37-00 - Faulty

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