I know people have had problems with their ACC's before but i can't seem to find a reliable place to purchase one from. Is there anyway these could be fixed. I would imagine it is just a light that is dying out but i am not that great with this type of stuff. Any help would be appreciated.

 

ok do you have ACC, or want ACC? And if you have it, is yours messed up? If so what's wrong with it?

 

I have an ACC already and when i turn it on the digital portion doesn't work. It is hard to set the temp i would like. it at times does work perfect but i would say 90% of the time i can hardly even see it. Now if i could by one that works that would be great. but if i could fix the one i have that would be better.

 

Take it apart, solder bad connections on the display screen pins.

 

ok i will try that as soon as i get out of work which is NOW!!! and let you know how it goes

 

Good luck

 

If you need one I can see if I can pull it out of my max that got t-boned last week and I will sell it to you for what I have into the blue leds I put in it so about $10.00 plus shipping.

 

If yours doesn't have a dimming issue, I'll take second dibs on that. Mine has dimming issues, you can barely read it, and sometimes (rarely) my a/c just shuts off. I have to hit Auto again for it to start back up.

 

I did the re-solder fix on mine over a year ago and all is well still. Just take your time and be careful.

 

OK i took the ACC apart and all the connections were perfect. So i could not figure out what went wrong. An interesting note is that when i tap the top part of the circuit board the lights brighten up. I double checked and even triple checked and don't see anything wrong. I am purchasing one from Maxteca. But if anyone has any other suggestions i would be happy to try.

 

Perhaps you have the same issue mine had. Mine was a faulty surface mounted capacitor on the bottom of the board, was an absolute bastard to find, but since I replaced it, I haven't had a problem. I believe the solder cap on the end of the capacitor had come away from the capacitor itself and would make contact some times. Unfortunately i didn't take any photos of the unit while it was out, as a faulty surface mount capacitor isn't normally a 'common' cause of the problem. But it is in the heater drive section, if you can trace the circuit board tracks back from the display, you can find this area.

If you get really desperate, let me know and I will remove mine and take photos.

 

I think you're referring to a blown capacitor. its actually a common problem(with electronics. I work with computers, and see motherboards become completely gone because of one cap going bad.
examples:

the cap on the left is busted, despite only a slight bulge, the center cap is okay, the right one (obviously) is gone. if you have a capacitor problem, you will need to replace it, and these can be had online or maybe radio shack(dunno, they've changed so much in the past few years, they may not have as wide a selection anymore.)
its a simple fix if you can use a soldering iron(I admit, we just trash the motherboards, its more cost-effective, and I couldn't use an iron to save my mouse....)

 

Was actually a surface mount capacitor, like C423 on the image shown, not a radial electrolytic like C404. The metal end cap actually fell off when i removed the capacitor, which is what I suspect was causing the problem.
But you are right, electrolytic capacitors cause a LOT of problem with electronic equipment. Especially equipment that runs hot.
Also, to the OP, if you aren't confident to remove and replace radial capacitors, I wouldn't even attempt a surface mount, you can wreck the board very easily if you aren't careful and don't have the right tools.

 

What is stopping you from just scrapping it and going shopping at the local boneyard/ebay?

 

Sort of recycling an old article here...but this is exactly my problem.And I spent a LONG time searching before posting a re-tread question. I have NO LCD display on my ACC, or extremely dim. So I bought a used replacement...same thing, plus the little (expensive) button display bulbs are burnt out. but since I have this spare unit, i thought maybe I should look at repairing it. So how can you tell which solder joint is poor, or which capacitor is cooked? How many capacitors are there, and what part # do i need (maybe i can just replace all the capacitors??).

Somebody posted a link to a guy that will fix this issue for $100. But I'm sure he's just figured out the couple of things that need soldering, or the capacitors.

Are there any other articles or links for this repair?
THANKS!

 

Just resolder the works, its not the capacitors, its the soldering.
Resolder everything and anything. Worked for me (resoldering specific area's didnt).

 

i soldered mine like 3 months ago and it worked for a while then it started giving me the same problem ( dimming )....then i jus replaced it with one from JY...never had any problem...but i m too lazy to open the old one and look for the problem but i m sure if u open it u will find it, specially the big white joint cable which connects the two pieces of climate control tend to be the problem...

 

JY....that's the guy that charges $100 to rebuild them?

 

JY---->Junk Yard

 

I posted a writeup a while ago here.

http://www.maximasdownunder.org/foru...php?f=6&t=2911

As I mentioned, I am not convinced the bad surface mount cap is a common cause of this fault, it just happened to be the cause of my dimming display!

 

oops..... there is a guy that rebuilds them at www.jerrytucker.net but I just emailed him and he said he doesn't fix my particular model.

I'll keep trying the JY, but I just got a used one with the same problems. I'm going to solder away.

how do you disconnect the blue vacuum tube from the left side of the control, without destroying it?

 

thanks for the link sonicii.

when you re-solder, do you just heat up the old solder point, or do you put some new solder on at the same time. when the tech fixed my TV a few years ago, he just touched several solder joints with his soldering iron; he never applied new solder.

Sony video camera I had (might have been close to same age as this PCB) also had bad capacitors. repairman told me they have some sort of liquid in them, and are sealed with tiny rubber orings. the heat dries out the orings and then they start failing like dominoes. once one goes, you're chasing another.

thanks for the info.

 

Depends on the condition of the joint, it is a good idea to add a little more solder to help 're-wet' the joint, however you don't want to end up with a huge blob of solder on the joint either. If you have flux, you could use this if the joint already has plenty of solder on it. If the joint is badly cracked, it is a good idea to remove the old solder and resolder it.

Electrolytic capacitors are the ones he is talking about, they are the capacitors that look like a cylindrical 'can', like shown above in the comptuer motherboard picture, and they do dry out and fail, generally in areas where there is a lot of heat.

The capacitor in my photo is not an electrolytic, and I believe mine failed due to mechanical vibration as the metal end cap had separated from the capacitor substrate.

Do you mean the ‘vacuum hose’ that has the cabin temperature sensor at the end? If so, then it should come off if you just pull on the hose, unless someone has glued it on!

 

thanks for that info sonicii. I know the black temp sensor hose you're talking about. that one is a piece of cake to remove. The one I'm referring to is a blue hose or tube, and seems to go all the way into the hvac area. I believe it controls the front vents, so that you can have cool air coming out of the vents while defrosting steamy windows. It does not appear to pull off easily. It's controlled by the lever on the left side of the ACC control unit and is somehow attached to the unit when you try to remove the entire unit. Up position is for the vents, down position is for closed vents (?).

When I got the spare unit from the other guy, this was a real PITA to remove. It may have had a little clip holding it on. It was late and the kid & his dad wanted me gone, so I just pried it off from the side. I'd rather be more careful on my own vehicle.

 

Ah, yes, the control cable for the 'cool air', it is a right pain to get off. If you have a small screwdriver, you can remove the screw securing the cable clamp from the side of the unit, the way I normally do this is to push the whole panel back into the dash, you can then move it sideways to access side required, once you have the clamp off, you can manoeuvre the panel into a position where you can access the screws on the rear of the unit, holding the lever on. Once the lever and cable is off, you can remove the unit.

Then comes the even more difficult part, getting it all back in!! you will see the end of the cable has a kick which needs to secure to the back of the lever, the hard part is getting the screws back in without the cable popping out again!

You also need to be careful not to scratch the front of the ACC unit during the whole process!

Patience is the key, the first time you do it, it will take a while!!

 

I'll add that once you get that blue cable reattached, make sure that the lever actually opens and closes the vent door before shoving that beast back into the dash. If you clamp the cable with the lever in the wrong position, the door will be stuck in that position and the lever will be frozen.

 

thanks. I guess you confirmed what I didn't want to know...how much of a PITA that cable is to remove! I was hoping there was some magical trick. only in dreamland!

 

just come down to surrey dude i will fix it for ya lol and if ur interested in buying rims i m selling mine with tires