I've been thinking about this for a while now...

The new Saab-arus and the 2005 model Scoobies are available with an automatic climate control center. My question is - can this be retrofitted into an earlier year scooby? The controls look roughly about in the same position, although the center dial is slightly lower on our models. If it's just the interior console, then it should in theory be a plug and play retrofit, right? (Anybody have any idea how much this thing costs in the '05 models?) It seems like the only thing you'd have to worry about is the exterior faceplate covering, which with a little dremel work, could be made to fit. But you'd probably have to take both and compare them side by side.

Just a thought... although I think it would be pretty cool to be able to have an automatic climate control. Then again the manual systems we have may have a few too many rods and pullies in there...

This is what I'm talking about - 05 model (left) vs. 2002-2004 (right):

 

is that a neon light?

 

No... it's the flashing LED for my car alarm.

I just heard that the 04 STis also came with automatic climate control, but due to the inherent problems of switching (i.e. mechanical vs electrical), it doesn't look like this is a very feasable retrofit...

 

^wow i want that deck!! what deck is that anyways?

edgar,

 

A nice idea, but not very practical. You would need to replace not just the controls, but the entire HVAC box as well since the manual one is cable-controlled and the auto one is servo-controlled. The auto system also has an interior temp sensor that is not present on the manual cars, its mounting location doesn't exist. So, not worth the effort and expense, and maybe not even possible.

 

hehe. put a thermo in the car. that's all i need.

 

well the temp sensor is just a hose that draws air in from the lower center console through 3 slits, and is attatched by a clip. What is the thing that people don't mention is the sunlight sensor that is in the front windshield trim piece on the dash, without that the auto climate control won't be able to tell how much temp the driver is feeling, since ambient heat is augmented by sunlight but we feel the sunlight directly.