A/C Controller Repair

[D'Ecosse]

For those of you with the A/C controller failure problems, (blown capacitors similar to the Bose amp issues), & aren't confident to tackle a home electronics repair as referenced elsewhere, I came across this repair service for the unit.

See Factory Car Stereo Repair inc at

http://www.carstereohelp.com/stereoremovalAcuraNSXStrR.htm

Note: I have no personal experience of this company's services, but they appear to do a large business in the area of OEM car stereo repair, particularly Bose. They repair the head units & amps for the Bose Stereo as their primary business.

I typically refer NSX'rs to the page linked because they have a really good guide for the stereo removal for anyone who isn't sure how to do this procedure. I only just saw the A/C reference (it's pretty obscure & had never seen that before).
Thought this might be helpful as it's becoming a more frequent problem on the early cars.

 

[sjones]

I would go with Langguth Electronics, his repair costs normally don't exceed $150

 

[matteni]

Who ever does the repair - find out if they warranty the work. Mine was repaired locally in St. Louis and worked great for a couple of weeks, then on-and-off, then more off then on. I paid $200 for basically nothing.

I ended up getting a new one from Dali for $800 and it works perfectly now. FYI.

 

[pimp42]

This guy did mine for $75. Workin' like a champ now.

Link

 

[T Bolen]

I'll second the vote for Langguth Electronics - he did 2 units for me (a fellow Prime member gave me his old unit) and they both work fine. Replaced all the caps and charged $100 each plus UPS charges.

 

[NSX2398]

I used these guys to repair my BOSE amps and I found them excellent to deal with (especially when I'm about 3000 miles away and in another country). One of the reasons I went with them is that they offered a standard 2 year warranty on the amp work so maybe they'll do the same on the a/c unit.

One thing you should be aware of in general is that there was a worldwide problem with a major supplier of electrolytic capacitors about 2 years ago which I gather hit most of the computer industry and may have hit other electronic circuitry areas as well. Electrolytic capacitors are the ones that look like little cylinders and if you look at the ends, it will likely look like theres' a large 'plus' sign. On bad capacitors, this will bulge out and maybe even split and in other cases the capacitors may leak a substance onto the circuit board.

In computers, these kinds of failures cause power related problems (mine is currently in for repair) but you can have weird problems long before that. If you're using new replacement capacitors from a reputable source, they're probably ok but I'm not sure how you can tell if you're not sure when they were ordered by your supplier. Maybe someone else on the board knows.

 

[pt91]

Ken,

That is the reference/website that I used to get me console out to remove the A/C board. It was very helpful to me.
I also read other existing posts that include the tip for pulling the clock out with opposing force using your thumbs instead of prying with a screwdriver which can damage the piece. It took about 10 minutes to do, but it worked.

I also used the credit card trick to release the vent clips.

I sent a used board to Langguth which is an hour away from me to fix my A/C. Worked great and I am very happy.

I also supplied an extra A/C controller (minus board) to Langguth so they can test repaired boards w/o owners sending in their entire controller unit. I would check with Langguth first, but owners should be able to just send in just the bad board and save a little shipping cost.

It gets a bit hot down here and this fix was a must for me.