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HVAC Control Swap: Swap just the lower ac/heater housing, or all of it?

9K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Justin Brimm 
#1 ·
Call me spoiled, but I hate the lack of bi-level air with my old slider controls, as well as the fact that the slider controls stiffen in cold weather and actually makes the sliders so hard to move that I've actually loosened one of the slider knobs when changing the setting.

I know that updating to the 3 round-knob style controls isn't easy, but I've done research into it, and from what I understand, you need to replace the control head (of course), the hvac electrical harness and vacuum harness and the ac/heater housing.

Everything is plug and play except for the ac/heater housing which unfortunately requires pulling the steering column, dash, ac lines, heater core and tons of other goodies to replace.

As I understand it however, all of that is connected to the upper half of the housing and replacing just the lower housing requires removing none of that. My question is, can I just replace my lower housing with the new style lower housing, or do I have to replace the entire housing all-together?

This makes the difference between biting the bullet and doing the swap, or just replacing my slider controls with a new slider control unit (which believe it or not, will cost me as much as all the parts needed for the swap, except for the housing itself).

Of course, if I'm wrong on anything, missing an additional part that will need to be changed, ect, let me know.
 
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#2 ·
Sorry, I can't answer your question, but it has come up here on the forum before so maybe a search will help you. Its been awhile though so it might be hard to find.

Are you aware of the problems with the newer style controls? The slider controls that you have are much more reliable.
 
#3 ·
the only problem I find with the rotary controls is annoying and that is that seems you have bi-level air all the time.. even when im in panel vents and esp when i have it set t panel vents and the temp control set to the cool side of the middle but not all the way cold you get cold air out of the vents and some HOT air out of the floor.. my last 3 wranglers have been this way.. however my 97 with slider controls when I was on panel vents I had 0 air coming from the floor vents... also note that on bi-level the A/C compressor is called for..
-Christopher
 
#5 ·
So it appears that I can just replace the lower housing, although the wiring now poses a question. I can get my hands on the hvac control harness but I don't know if it's going to be a simple swap, or if I'll need to modify the rest of the dash harness where the hvac control harness plugs in.

Also, I haven't heard much for problems with the new style. What are some common problems found with them and how likely am I run into those problems?
 
#6 ·
An update! I asked my service manager about it (as a college job (Geology major), I work in service at a Dodge dealership, but we service as many Jeeps as Dodges) and he told me that unfortunately, due to the bolt placement that holds the two housing halves together, you have to take the entire thing out to remove the lower housing from the upper housing.

While it is technically possible to remove it in place, he said that it's actually easier to completely take everything apart rather than screw around and try to take it apart in place.

As it is, I'll look at it a little more just incase I come up with some way to do it, but it's starting to look like I'll have to wait until something breaks that requires I have to take it out anyways. Of course, however long it may be from now, when the day finally comes for me to do this, I'll make sure to post about it, so the process isn't quite so hard for those in the future.
 
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