A/C control unit

I was talking to the guys at QV London in Ascot England today. They deal quite a lot with cars like ours ( older ones). However, they know most of the 348´s have problem with the A/C units and they have found a guy who fixes them. If you send in your old one you get a repaired one in exchange. It costs 180 GBP which is roughly 350 USD.

I am definetly going to do that trick in October when my car is tucked in for the winter. Although tonight it worked perfect when it was set for 22 centigrades and the "risc" was on..........not the A/C.

//B//

 

FWIW, I sent one that was diagnosed as 'unrepairable'.

Believe me, I have no dog in this fight... I don't have any new units to sell either.

 

Great news Bengt!!!

The guys from QV are great! I still own Mike and Phil couple of pints of beer the next time I'm over.

Thanks for the heads up on the rebuilds.

 

I've fixed mine. If you've got hot spots (look like brown or black burn marks) you'll need to re-soldier those points on the small PC boards inside.

You've also got to clear any dirt/lint that spans/bridges soldier points.

Stabilant 22a everywhere (soldier points, all bare wire/pins, etc.) works wonders, too. Especially Stabilant 22a on the ground pins behind the left side air vent.

If the above doesn't fix it, then test the whole unit for chip integrity by sealing each PC board into airtight baggies and place them into your freezer for four to 6 hours. Remove them simultaneously, connect them up, and quickly install the unit into your 348.

If the unit works right then after the installation (you've got about 30 minutes before the chips unfreeze), then your problem is typically a dying IC. Granted, hunting down the problem then takes some work (for instance, freeze half of your PC boards the next time around...if that fixes your problem temporarily then you've narrowed down the problem chip to 2 pc boards instead of 4...repeat the freeze with 1 board to narrow down your problem to a single PC board).

 

Nice tip Shemp.

I gotta hand it to you bro, you really know the computers on these cars. Good having you as a Stooge.

LONG LIVE THE BROTHERHOOD!

 

Hi Daniel,

Did you send it to QV?

Acc. to what they told me as long as you send one to them you get a repaired one in return, which should eliminate your situation. As far as I can figure out they get a few every year from scrapped cars, why they always have a few in their stores.

Rgds,

//B//

 

I have taken that bloody thing apart several times now. Tried all of your tricks, but still have some problems. The fan starts blowing whenever it chooses and stops unpredictable. Especially when set on "A/C" and 19 centigrades. Suddenly it stops cooling and sends warm air in the car instead. Very annoying when it is warm outside.

There are no "hot spots" on the pcb boards thats for sure........however the freezer trick is new to me so I will try that one also. However there is a problem to that as well because the problems I explained above does not show immediately why the freezer effect might be lost on the way.

If I can´t get it solved I will definetly send the **** over to the UK to get a new one that is for sure. I am just fed up.

//B//

 

Mine was the same way. Out of curiosity, what is the build date on your control unit? (There is a sticker on the back of it). Can you shoot a photograph of the jumper connection on the back where the main harness is connected? I have a theory about these... and why Ferrari changed that connector for a longer plastic housing around late 1992.

 

Going to Stockholm for a couple of days but will take a few shots in the week end.

//B//