Manual to automatic climate control swap 08 edge

[Justin Schepers]

So ive recently decided to put an iPad air in my dash. Which requires modifying the dash bezel that contains the climate controls. Upon looking up the new bezel i decided to venture into swapping over the controls from manual to automatic. Im making this post to serve 2 purposes.

 

1. To see if anyone can assist with this or provide any input

2. Hopefully provide some information to other users

 

So lets begin. The adventure starts with the digital climate control unit (8T43-18C612-AE) i bought a used one off of ebay to test to see if this would even partially work or hopefully work entirely. Upon hooking it up. i noticed that it half works without any sort of modification just by hooking up the black harness.

 

Now let me note that im not looking for the dual climate zone, the seat warmers, outside temp or any other fancy features. this is basically to control my current HVAC system.

 

There are only 2 things that do not function at this point
1. the blower motor speed
2. the actuator for the defrost/panel/foot door.

 

Upon looking up wiring diagrams for the system the only difference between the 2 systems is how the blower motor speed is controlled. The actuator wiring is the exact same, My feeling for why this isnt working is due to the blower motor control unit not being connected to the unit and its defaulting to a "safe mode" until the unit is detected.

 

The blower motor on the manual system works by use of a blower motor resistor. however in the automatic its controlled by a blower motor control unit (19E624). Im currently in contact with some resources to see if i can add the harness from the automatic and swap the resistor for the blower control unit. The harness im looking at is (7T4Z19C603D)

 

 

Ive read some forums that state you need to reprogram a module within the vehicle. at this point that should not be the case because im not swapping the entire HVAC system and it would not have any additional features that would need to be controlled. The HVAC blower motor control unit should be only communicating with the hvac controls.

 

Any input would be appreciated on this. As well, the more information i find on this, i will keep this post updated