Climate control: Used vs. Rebuilt
 

W124. E420 1995

My heater stopped working. A friend loaned me his climate control, and magic all works fine. Now to get a climate control for myself.

Used climate controls straight from the car and 'rebuilt' climate controls seem to be available.

But what could be done to make the rebuilt better? The climate control unit is all plastic, and if taken apart may just break. So what could the rebuilding guys do to improve the unit?

Thanks.

I'll shell out the money, if there really is a difference.

We are talking $50 vs. $150

Where did you find a rebuilt for $150 ? All the places I looked "rebuilt" units were $240+.

Typically what causes these climate control units to fail are two things:
1) Cold solder joints
2) Age/Worn out capacitors

So I suspect what happens when they get "rebuilt" is they go through the unit, resolder things that look suspect and replace capacitors (sometimes). I've seen "rebuilt" cruise units that they did not replace the capacitors., they merely fixed it so that it worked.

I also suspect the replace some of the labels/logos/stickers on the front of the climate control so that it looks nicer and whatnot.

I've worked on a few climate controls, most recently one from a W201.
201 830 03 85 First Gen Climate Control W201 - Imgur

Get a quality rebuilt unit. Used could just fail at any time like the one you have now. It's either hit or miss with used parts. I had about 2 dozen I was going to repair at one point pulled from other MBs.. Either that or rebuild it yourself. Not daunting by all means.

rebuilt is dounding better
 

Planning yo keep the car