Can climate control vent vacuum actuators be rebuilt?
 

The internal rubber diaphrams have tears and Mercedes only sells complete actuators. Does anyone just sell the diaphrams?

TRY GAP AT 1800-241-9900

There are a couple of suppliers of diaphragms. For some reason dual chamber actuators don't work as well with replacement diaphragms.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

I rebuilt a double actuator with no problem (except for getting the @#$@#$@ thing OUT of the DASH). I would strongly advise buying and using the inexpensive "popper" tool - it's otherwise very difficult to separate the halves of the actuator without breaking.

Myself and some others here have had mixed results rebuilding the actuators. I purchased new diaphrams for my '87 124, but ended up ordering all new actuators. I was dissatisfied with the repaired actuators.

The big problem I had was the brittleness of the plastic body of the actuator itself. It was impossible to dissasemble them without breaking one or two of the four tabs which hold the upper and lower halves together. Upon reassembly the tabs did not hold as tightly as before - I had at least one actuator come apart after repair.

Dave M. (gsxr) also has some thoughts on rebuilding actuators. Here's the long and rambling thread: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=35373&highlight=george+murphy

If you wish to attempt repair, a source for the diaphrams is George Murphy @ Performance Analysis. Phone is (865) 482-9175. Price is $5 per diaphram.

Best of luck,

- JimY

why bother rebuilding? my local MBZ dealer quotes $16 for the whole actuator.

Lets see... $80... $25...

Why bother replacing them yourself? Just get a mechanic to do them for you.

Same reason. Money

I did order 2 of the single chamber ones from Mercedes for $16 and $24 but the 3 dual chamber units would total $110 so I ordered the diaphrams for $35 inc. shipping from George Murphy. I'll see how it goes and I don't mind saving $75 for a half hours work.

IME the only ones worth trying to rebuild in the W123 are the single-diaphragm units. That said, you can get a dual-diaphragm unit from Randy Steele (www.epsparts.com) for less than $50 the last time I checked. This is the kind of stuff Randy specializes in.

I just fixed the dreaded center vent actuator with a rubber diaphragm from http://autoluxmbz.com. The diaphragm was $5! He also has the popper for $10.
Seems like a nice guy who deserves some business, although many of you may have already determined that.

Fixed link: http://www.autoluxmbz.com/

Oops, right you are. http://www.autoluxmbz.com/