Converting from Standard to Electronic Climate Control...Can it be done???

[OSUV]

Hello everyone!

The fan blower switch on my heater/AC control panel is dying. I have high gear only! When I want airflow, I have two choices...off or 'Blast me out the door'. I know that the easy fix would be to just replace the standard climate control panel with the same. But I recently received a free 'electronic' climate control panel from the same model year Explorer as mine. And it looks to be brand new.

Can I uprade from the standard boring 3 dial climate control to the more attractive and more functional 'electronic' climate control? The connector openings in the back of each panel are different, so it's obviously not going to be a plug and play situation.

The vacuum hoses appear to be the same. Only the wiring appears different. I have the connectors with stubbed out wires for the new electronic climate control panel. All I need to know is, can it be adapted and if so, how can I get a hold of a wiring diagram for each panel so I can properly match the wires from the current wiring harnesses/connectors to the new harnesses/connectors?

By the way, My EXPO is a 1998 2DR Sport 4X4 w/AUTO & 4.0 SOHC!

I appreciate any advice i can get on this. But if you don't know the answer, please don't act like you do. That benefits noone on this prestigeous forum.

Thanks in advance and GO BUCKEYES!

 

[99SportX]

I did it to my 99 sport. I used all factory wiring, so the install went quite smoothly though. I swapped out my whole dash wiring, and am soon to swap out the wiring around the perimeter of the engine bay. If you were going to wire it yourself, you would still need some more parts. These would be blower motor speed control, sunload sensor, exterior temp sensor, cabin temp sensor, and a blend door actuator for the EATC system. There are a lot of wires with this climate control, and wiring it would be quite a task, but it has been done before.

 

[OSUV]

Thank you for the quick reply. I figured that I would need additional parts; including sensors. You mentiond that you used all factory wiring. Do you mean that you purchased the electronic climate control factory harnesses which included all of the connectors? I assume that there are 2 harnesses since there are 2 connector recepticles at the back of the module. Can I tap into some of the existing wires of the existing harness for functions such as power, ground, illumination, etc. or do you recommend going completely with new harnesses and ditching the old ones? How will I know where to properly locate the sensors? I don't know, this conversion may be beyond my scope of expertise. My fear is that I screw the whole thing up and wind up with no heat or AC. I'll have to give it some careful thought as to whether or not it is really worth all the hassle. Do you feel that it was worth it for you?

Cheers,

Kevin

 

[99SportX]

This swap was 100% worth it. MUCH better temperature control than the standard controls. I will be honest though, I don't have it working perfectly yet. It is only because I am lazy. I pulled my whole dashboard and replaced the whole wiring harness (there is only one harness in the whole dash) in there with one from a truck that had the EATC already. This made the swap plug and play more or less. It had all the connectors for the sensors, etc. All the mounting locations for the sensors are already there. You know that little vent just to the right of the radio? The interior temp sensor mounts behind that. And have you seen that little circular hole in the black plastic trim piece along the windshield at the top of the dash on the pass side? That is where the sunload sensor mounts. Since I still haven't replaced the entire engine bay wiring harness (going to wait and do that when I swap in my V8), I sorta ghetto wired the blower motor control. It works for the most part. I also am not running the external temp sensor, as it mounts up by the radiator and I never got around to it yet. Still works though. If you can get complete wiring harnesses for a good price, I suggest that route, because the swap is simply plug and play. I can't offer much advice as to wiring it all from scratch, but if you put some time and thought into it, I bet you could do it.

 

[gijoecam]

It's a lot of work to go through for a minor convenience IMHO. (Especially when the fix for your existing problem entails two screws and a $15 resistor, and possibly a $13 connector).

-Joe

 

[OSUV]

I'm inclined to agree with you Joe. I guess that if I wanted the features of an XLT, I should have bought an XLT. It sounds like a lot of work. I think I'll just fix the existing unit and enjoy my mediocre airflow. I guess I'll put this electronic climate control module on eBay and see what kind of money it brings. Thanks for the advice to everyone that replied.

 

[gijoecam]

Be sure that when you check the resistors you inspect the wiring harness that plugs into it. More often than not, the harness is damaged as well.

Here was mine:
The resistors were intact, but the harness connector had corroded, gotten hot, and melted down. First I didn't have low, then I didn't have medium low, then I lost medium high, and that was the last straw.

The resistors:

The plug:

and the replacement harness, cut the old wires back as far as you can, strip, solder, and shrink tube:

Been working like a champ ever since!

Also, (and I forgot to get pics of it) I siliconed the back side of the new connector to seal out the elements, and coated the face of the plug and the resistor tabs with dielectric grease before reassembling it. The new harness plug is exposed to the elements just like the original one was (Why wouldn't they seal the replacements?!!??) so I didn't want it to happen again.

-Joe