Mercedes 300D Climate Control SNAFU

[Twanoh Tom]

I am just learning the workings of this car and am puzzled over a "quirk" in the heating system. I have the temperature dial set for 70 degrees and it seems to work fine when first started but if I stop at the store and then take off again, it blows cold unless I manually "kick it in the butt" by raising it to 80 degrees. Then I cook unless I move it back to 70. Today on the way home from work it stopped putting out heat altogether, and had a faint smell of burning electrical things! I got home and waited an hour and restarted it and it worked fine. Hmmm. Maybe I should be thankful that I have heat at all. Anyone ever mess with one of these units? Is there a special place where you firmly smack it with your fist? What's this have to do with grease, anyway?
Yes, Chris, I'm amongst the living again. I'll call & make an appt.
Tom

[cgoodwin]

Mercedes climate control rivals the space program, the manual just for the climate control is literally the size of a phone book. Common issues are the Monovalve which has a rubber diaphram which fails and the control unit which is part of the dash center cluster and should simply be replaced as a unit if found defective. The various flaps which control the air flow are controlled by Vacuum pots, these can also fail and are not a joy to replacec as when the vehicle is built, the assembly line begins with the heater and the vehicle is constructed around it ;-)

Chris

[Twanoh Tom]

Imagine my surprize. Somewhere on the internet, I saw a kit to bypass this system and make it operate manually for around $40. I'll see if I can find that link.