[ales17]

Hi!

It's my first post in this forum so I hope it's in the correct forum.
I bought second hand Cerato 1.5 CRDi 2005 and I have manual A/C and since I have an option to buy unit from crashed Cerato that has an automatic A/C control I was thinking to replace it so I could have an automatic A/C control if this conversion would be possible.
Since it looks like all the control on manual A/C looks to be all electric I was hopping that all I would have to replace is central part of the dash board that has all the controls.
So I would really appreciate if anyone could give me some pointers how to check if this would be possible!
I did some searching but I couldn't find any useful info and also I wasn't able to register at kiatechinfo so I would also need some help how to remove the dash board with A/C control.

Thanks for any advices you could share!

 

[DavesSpectra]

Hello and Welcome to kia-forums.
I can see some questions coming to mind...
Is the "donor" and your Cerato the same year/model/engine (petrol/diesel)/tranny.
Was the "donor" car involved in a fron end crash? The condenser (radiator for the AC) may be damaged as well as the plumbing (hoses/compressor/dryer)..
Even though the car may be the same (minus the AC) the wiring harness,body control module/AC+blower speed control module) the plumbing in the heating ducts would have to be changed... The dash would have to come apart also to do the changes... Quite a lot of changes...Are you SURE you are up to doing all the above?
Dave

 

[ales17]

The "donor" car is the same but the colour and some luxury equipment.
Donor car was involved in back end crash not to severe but still not suitable for repair.
My car has AC it's just manual so you have to manually set temperature etc. not via digital display.
I know that on BMW E46 you can only exchange heating controls for digital ones and it works! So I was thinking to do the same. If I can easily exchange heating controls I can also test it before I buy it.
I think that wiring harness the plumbing in the heating ducts would not have to be changed. Just control unit on the dash board!

Any suggestions how to dismantle middle of the dash board so I can test if that would work? At least to see if the connectors are the same! And if they are then I will try to connect digital unit and test if it works!

 

[ales17]

I have an option to buy the whole car (without an engine) for a good price so I probably will!
I'll report later when I'll be able to try A/C control exchange!

 

[ales17]

So I bout that crashed car!

And just to replay on the topic! The manual A/C control can't easily exchanged with automatic one. Connector are different and also digital has some more wiring!

But I managed to change whole lot of other thing from donor car:
- all the seats
- steering wheel
- boot shelf
- digital clock
- got separate wheels with hubcaps
- front brake pads (waiting to be mounted)
- rear disks and brake pads
- tow bar (waiting to be mounted)

Maybe also somethig alse but I lost track of it!