hi guys,

looking to replace mine with the same panel but with blue leds fitted,

has anyone had experience removing this, that could give some advice/instructions?

thanks

Did this exact same modification a few months ago, you need to remove the radio and fascia to get clearance to manouveure the control panel out of position.

The panel is held with two screws that go through flat metal threads that hook onto the control panel.

There are two electrical connectors to unclip, one large connector for the fan speed and the smaller one for illumination.

The temperature knob has a wire running over a cam which has a push in connector to hold the sleeve in tension and a small plastic loop which hooks over the end of the cam, you need to rotate the cam until minimum tension is on the wire then pop out the sleeve tensioning block clips with a screwdriver and then unhook the loop from the cam.

The vent control cable is a long spring cable with green connectors on both ends, the rear one connects behind the framework to the rear of the dash recesses.

The place it plugs into is a swine to see but is easy enough to find with the tips of your fingers fore relocating the connector.

The front one is much longer and for some crazy reason seems to have a built in weak point which snaps easily if bent therefore I strongly recommend you disconnect the rear one first or a new cable will be required.

The control panel is a bit of a mare to wriggle out of the dash but with a bit of pushing, pulling and a little thought will work free in the end.

Reassembly is a direct reversal, make sure that when relocating the spring cable that the vents do move on the turn of the cable (push the rear piece firmly into position and ensure the front piece is fully in the back of the panel.

Just a word of caution, if you are buying one from this eBay seller that they did not reply to me when I notified them that the one I got from them was duff-

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/carparts4you2011?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

The dials lit up ok but the recirculation and aircon buttons did not light up also the aircon button was actually found to be non functional.

I would assume that because it was about two months after I bought the panel that I actually got around to fitting it they considered oit enough time to wash their habds of the matter.

My advice is that, if you buy from them, test the electrical connections and illuminations for functionality before you fully install it (just the two electrical connectors should suffice).

I actually ended up refitting my original panel because of the faults making my aircon non operational and the offending article is being passed to my brother-in-law (a control Engineer) for a possible fix.

thanks stoney, how long did it take you? roughly

About 30 minutes including removing/refitting the radio.