Climatronic Swap
Initially when looking for a MkV Jetta I was looking for one with all the bells and whistles. The price that those cars commanded was more than I really wanted to pay, plus I was out of town most of the time I was looking. Adding to that the fact that there really aren't that many TDIs in my market for sale (that I've ever been able to find) I drove a few hours away to pick this one up. I've been happy tinkering with it since then, adding things here and there to get me where I wanted to be initially. After undertaking this modification though my wife wonders (as do I sometimes) why I didn't just pay the extra money initially.
A swap of this sort seemed too large an undertaking, until I saw posts from 2008 where maloosheck had done it to his, and I thought this could be something I could do. His rundown of the basic steps to complete it made it seem as easy as removal and replacement. I took the plunge rather quickly and after only searching a couple of nights bought a donor air box for the swap. After studying schematics, pin outs, as well various removal instructions, I decided to dive in. How long could this take anyway? Maloosheck said he could have done it in 3 days if he hadn't socialized.
For those who may be looking at this wondering what I'm doing, I'm swapping my Climatic, single zone, semi-automatic heater and A/C system for a Climatronic, dual zone, automatic heater and A/C system. Here is what I'm starting off with:
Most of the work around the center vent and steering wheel I've worked with removing before, but hadn't removed the center console, passenger airbag, or dashboard before. After only three hours in and progress like this, I'm thinking I'm doing pretty good.
It was somewhere in here that I noticed my drop light started to flicker, and noticed that the CFL housing had come apart. The light did drop earlier that day onto the garage floor. Maybe that did it in.
Progress slowed down at this point, as I moved to the engine compartment. I thought the heater hoses were hard to remove, but the A/C lines proved to be even more of a pain. The bolts holding the lines to the expansion valve were in there pretty good, and using my breaker bar there wasn't much room to move it, or to even get it in there. I had to stop and drive to Harbor Freight to pick up a longer 3/8" drive ratchet. Upon returning I was able to get the top line loose, but I broke the head off the blot on the lower line. I decided this was a good place to stop for the night, 8 hours or so after starting.
The next day started with a trip to Lowe's to try finding a suitable replacement bolt for the A/C lines. There I found a stainless steel bolt that looked like it would work great, so I went back and got to work on the inside of the car. After struggling to get the final air box bolt out, I stopped and looked at my donor air box. Now I had looked at it briefly before, and now saw what could be a show stopper, a damaged housing!
Getting the two air boxes side by side I started to take them apart to see what really made them different. The main difference is in the air distribution housing, fan assembly, and wiring harness. Further disassembled the assemblies until everything was out, and took the time to wipe mine down on the inside. My heater core looked better than the one from the donor, but my evaporator core was pretty dirty. I took the one from the donor air box, and started to put it all back together.
Finally, I have an air box that should work! The big difference (though unable to see it in this picture) is the series resistor unit that sits unused in my frankenairbox. At this point I still need to run the wiring from the auxiliary heater to the correct place in the wiring harness.
Wiring from the auxiliary heater to the air box wasn't that hard to do. Just twisted together some line (20 AWG, I couldn't get 21 AWG in time) and connect it to the heating unit, and the other end to the connector for the fan. I decided on red and green in part because it was two days before Christmas.
The expansion valve became the hardest part of this whole swap. My intention was to replace it with a new one, as I didn't at the time the compressor was changed in 2016. Unfortunately I was unable to get the line loose from the valve with force, PB Blaster, and the combination of the two. I started to drill out the bolt from behind, where I could better access it in the passenger compartment. After slow progress I stopped, and contemplated the likelihood of it breaking loose going down the road. Considering all I did to it and it didn't, I figured the odds were in my favor. I quit for the night and proceeded the next day.
Day 2 complete. To be continued...
