Climate Control Unit

The Climate Control Unit (sometimes called Climate Control Pod, though this sometimes also refers to the plastic housing to which the Climate Control unit is affixed) is an electrical device which allows the driver to control the climate control system to the car, providing warm or cool air, and defrost functions.

Versions

There are four different climate control units used on Z32s.
Note: Manual and Automatic refer to manual climate control or automatic (digital) climate control units; not transmission.

	Manual	Automatic
1990	Standard. Temperature and fan control knobs are missing; this is quite common.	Optional (GLL trim only).
1991+	Standard on convertibles (93 ). No longer available on all other models. Identical to '90 Manual unit, except lacking rear wiper controls.	Standard on all models (except convertible).

Specific Differences

• Manual: Both units are identical, except the 93+ convertible version does not include a switch to control the rear wiper, as convertibles do not include rear wipers. These were dropped after 1990, but reappeared for the 'vert in 1993. This was because the auto climate control system utilizes various sensors, some of which are mounted on the roof, and this simply wouldn't work with a soft top.
  • In Japan, manual climate control continued to be the standard, with automatic remaining optional.
• Automatic: 1990 auto climate control units displayed the ambient (outside) temperature. While later units dropped this, they gained the ability for the user to specify vent direction and gave 4 fan speeds, instead of just two. Early (1990) and late (1991+) climate control units are not interchangeable.

Diagnostics

The automatic climate control unit can perform self diagnostics to point out problems with various sensors and actuator motors.
Main Article: Auto Climate Control Diagnostics.

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