Replacing Buttons on Auto AC Controller

I dont know if anyone will ever need to do this or not, but I couldn't stand my AC buttons being worn, so I bought a whole new unit and it ended up being the wrong one (it showed the ext. temp in the middle of the screen, which I didn't have originally so it defaulted to 55F all the time). Instead of returning it, I took my old one and the new one apart to just swap out the buttons and screen.
If you want to do this, look for a cheapy one on ebay that all the buttons look good on whether the ebay unit works or not, you will just be taking the buttons from it...

Get an allen wrench (dont remember the size) and unscrew the 4 screws on the back


Use a flat head screwdriver and pop off all 8 tabs of the face plate, 4 on each side


Next seperate the back of the module from the buttons/faceplate using the flat head to push the tabs down and pull apart


then it will look something like this


From here on out, you can pick and choose what you want to swap out, you can see i popped out one set of the buttons but I ended up swapping all the buttons...

Here is the finished product installed...same 2008 module, with 2011 buttons


Hope this helps anyone that ran into my same problem.

Later,
Ryan

Nice DIY, thanks for sharing

Nice write up.


Sent from my iPhone 4g using Tapatalk

Need to do the same thing. Thanks!

thanks for the writeup and the AC Power button. Took my unit apart and it was an easy swap and i no longer have to look at that annoying worn off bright green button at night.

No problem glad it worked for you.

ranorris2 said:

Here is the finished product installed...same 2008 module, with 2011 buttons

Click to expand...

The only difference I see between your 2011 one and my 2007 one is the top right button. Mine says AUX were yours now says REAR.

Is that the only difference or is there something I'm overlooking?

Nice write up BTW

that is the only difference...I changed them out because a couple of the buttons were wearing off...

ranorris2 said:

that is the only difference...I changed them out because a couple of the buttons were wearing off...

Click to expand...

Ok, just wanted to make sure...

I just bought the replacement as well for my wife's 07. It is the weirdest thing because the exterior temp on the HVAC controls is different from the temp on the mirror. They are normally within a few degrees of each other, but hardly ever the same. I would think they use the same sensor for temp, but they must not. If it gets on the wife's nerves, I'll try swapping the buttons. They don't appear to make the old control unit anymore, and this one was about $130 on amazon.