[s-cars] automatic climate control diagnostic trouble codes

[Tom Green]

I finally decided to replace the vent fan that has been chirping at  
me for four years or so.  :-)  And, yes I had tried the Maddock/ 
Maloney fix of spraying it liberally with WD-40, which, IMHO, is a total
waste of time, as it only coats the fan with a dust collector and  
never reaches the squealing bearings.   I had also had intermittent  
8.3 and 11.3 faults on the flaps that would clear for several weeks
before showing up again, so I decided to remove the box and refurbish  
everything.  So far, everything went well.

Checking everything out electronically before closing up and  
installing the interior vents, the c/c head shows fault 15.5. back  
pressure flap, static block, and the VAG-COM records DTC 01274,
air flow flap motor V71, static open or blocked flap.  There is a  
note in Bentley in the overview of the c/c diagnostic display  
channels that the air flow flap motor V71 and back pressure flap motor
position sensor G113 are not installed in USA/Canada vehicles and  
disregard values displayed for these components.   There is no DTC  
01274 listed in Bentley, so no information is available
other than what the VAG-COM displays.

The VAG-COM DTC I can easily ignore, since it is explicit that it is  
not installed, and no illustration shows where it would be for other  
country models.  I thought the Bentley was universal in coverage,
explaining why we have all the european brake information to drool  
over, but I will leave it to them to get that information.  There is  
already too much here for me to digest now, but I do wonder why
this code has just now shown up?

The note says disregard the back pressure flap position sensor G113  
faults since it is not there.  No problem there, but it doesn't say  
anything about the back pressure flap itself or this static block
fault code on the c/c head.  Can I assume that since the other  
electrically positioned flaps have the position sensor built into the  
flap motor that this motor doesn't exist and there is no back pressure
flap installed in USA/Canada vehicles?  Some of these 15.x codes have  
shown up occasionally but I could always clear them and they wouldn't  
come back unless another flap problem showed up,
with the 8.3 temperature regulator flap motor fault IIRC, but  
changing that motor and clearing codes eliminated both.  This is on  
the '95 sedan.  The 95.5 avant displays no codes on the c/c head
(0.0), and there are no VAG-COM DTC's.

I am going to check the c/c head coding next and perform a basic  
setting.   Has anyone experienced these fault codes and found a  
solution that eliminates them?  Or, are they always displayed
when you check the diagnostic channels on the c/c head?