Hi,

I've just had my car returned from a garage, where it went in to diagnose if the clutch needed replacing. However on pickup of the car, I noticed the climate control LCD screen is now completely unreadable. The screen was perfect when I took the car in last Saturday, but on pickup today it just shows a bunch of hieroglyphics. The controls appear to still function however, perhaps it's just the LCD screen at fault.

The garage stated it must just be coincidence the screen has failed, which I have reluctantly accepted, but my question is what is the most cost effective way of getting it fixed?

The Climate controls and screen are embedded into the dash, but I assume I can access the screen when I take out the stereo CD 6000 unit above it?

The car is a Ford SMAX 2007 Titanium model.

Thanks

S.

You don't need to remove the radio - you remove the front fascia panel and the climate unit is screwed to the back of it.

There are instructions of how to remove the fascia panel on the smax owners club website.

You will need to replace the entire climate unit - they are about £200+ from Ford, but you regularly find them on ebay for about £80. Just make sure you don't get one from a Galaxy as it won't work - the 3rd row option isn't compatible with the S-max.

The link below will take you to a listing on eBay where they are breaking a S-Max which has the climate control unit.

Should work out cheap?

http://bit.ly/On6Y0W

Before you replace the unit, try a battery reset first (if you have your radio code) by disconnecting the battery positive terminal for a few minutes.