The climate controller in my first Q never failed. Not a flicker, even once. The one on my second (current) Q failed back in 2005. First I spent about $50 ordering one out of a '93 from a junk yard - hoping that it would be of an updated design. It was bad. Then I tried all kinds of things to fix mine myself, including replacing the big capacitors on the board, with the idea that they might be leaking like the ones on the Bose amps. I also tried reheating every solder joint on the board. Neither fix worked and I sent it off to Jerry Tucker with a check for $100. That controller had a separate issue that I now believe was more related to not being plugged in firmly - but was pretty much unreliable. Also, I may have messed something up when I tried reheating all of the solder joints. Anyhow, Jerry was gracious enough to fix my '93 junkyard unit at no charge which I left in Q1 when I sold her after the wreck. So I'm still running the original, never replaced controller that came from my old Q. It has over 240K miles in service and is almost 20 years old.
So I decided to start picking up spares off of eBay, and more recently from the local Pull-A-Part junk yard. I got very excited when I pulled one out of a '91 or '92 with a part number that ended in 60U06 or 60U08 (couldn't tell since the part number might be smeared a little) - thinking that it might be a very recently replaced one and good - but it was a dud too. So with 8 spares on hand, only one other than the one out of my old Q worked consistently.
Then last week I had a brain storm and started bench testing them with a 12V power supply instead of in the car. I looked and looked at the one that Jerry Tucker fixed vs. one of my spares, trying to find any identifying mark on a part that differed - for a clue of what he was replacing - but everything matched perfectly. As a last resort I hooked a controller up to the power supply that had a completely dead display, misted areas with freeze spray - and narrowed it down to the bad part! It's a tiny surface mount capacitor on the main board that, when sprayed with freeze spray always makes the display come back! Depending on the controller, it "fixes" the display for a few seconds or several hours before blacking out again. Capacitors are notoriously temperature sensitive when they fail.
Here's a picture of the board with the bad capacitor marked.
I checked my always reliable controller, and the one spare that always worked - and found that there's a reason that those two were different. The factory had tacked on a ceramic disc style capacitor instead of the SMD surface mount one.
Here's a picture of the good one from my first Q with it's factory mounted ceramic disc capacitor instead of the SMD cap.
I am positive that it was done at the factory, since the controller from my old Q has the original 60U00 part number, I have service records dating all the way back to the day the car was put into service, and that Q had a bumper to bumper warranty in effect when I bought it - I know that no one would have paid out of pocket to replace it or repair the controller outside of the warranty.
So here's the deal - I'm going to tell everyone my "fix" (which I put in quotes since we don't have a track record of it being a permanent fix) and make an offer to those members that don't want to try their hand and soldering tiny components themselves. First the fix:
I removed the disc capacitor from my good spare and found that it's a 180pf cap. I didn't have a voltage rating, so I ordered some that are probably mega overkill. 180pf rated to 1000V with a 5% variance. A cap rated to 50V is probably more than sufficient, but the cost difference was minimal. I ordered the caps from Mouser (p/n 81-DEA1X3A181JA2B) They're a little larger than the one the factory used - but still fit in the case just fine.
Here's a picture of one of the boards with it's new capacitor installed.
I have one board that's a different design - but the cap is in basically the same location, labeled C44. Here's a zoomed picture of it:
After I fixed all of my spares, I bench tested each of them with a 12V power supply. Each one worked for at least 24 hours. Here's a picture of my test setup:
I haven't done it yet, but in the very near future, I will check them to make sure they function in the car.
So here's the offer part. I don't drive my Q enough to test them for a length of time to know that this fix really works. I would need to drive more than I do (sometimes the Q doesn't see the road more than one day a week) - and it would take quite a while. I won't really consider one fixed until it works in a variety of temperatures for a few months. So I would like to sell off four of my spares for $60 each to members. This price includes shipping to members in the continental United States. For members in Canada or other parts of the world, we'll work something out, but you'll have to pay for any additional shipping. This will give us a test group, and the cost is less than having it repaired, or trying a few eBay or junkyard spares to find one that might work. In my experience you have about a 10% chance of getting a good one. I would even be willing to refund $15 to anyone that ships their old one back to me as a core - so we're talking $45 for one of my repaired controllers! This plan serves three purposes for me... First, I clear out some of my spare parts stash and recover some of the cost of buying them. The second purpose is to get these "fixed" units in NICO member's cars - so that we'll know if my repair actually works! The third benefit is that more of us will have a working display on the Q, and one less reason for someone to decide to ditch their car!
As a disclaimer, these are used controllers. The bulbs that light up the buttons are mostly burned out. There are worn letters or graphics on a few of the buttons. If yours is in better condition, or you have working bulbs, feel free to swap them out before you send your core back to me (if you send it back). There is no warranty on these - so if you want a guarantee - send yours to Jerry Tucker. I think he'll guarantee it for a year. Although I think this is the fix, I don't know for sure. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a trained electronics expert, but my dad was, and that's where I learned how to solder and do some limited troubleshooting. Basically, I know just enough to be dangerous. If I screwed up something in a controller that causes some sort of damage to your car - you agree that I'm not liable. I'm confident enough to plug these into my car and will only send out ones that operate correctly for me - but there is no guarantee for any length of time. In summary these units will have passed two tests - the display working for at least 24 hours on my kitchen table hooked to a power supply, and they will have worked in my Q idling in the driveway though a self-test.
Thanks for reading what's probably one of the longest posts in NICO history! I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on all of this.
Heath
