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[jereboam]

That’s literally what it’s doing.  The Climate Control seems to have taken leave of it’s senses (or sensors?) and I get 20 minutes of roasting heat followed by 20 minutes of Arctic gale.  Not sure what happens then – I haven’t been on any long journeys lately.  Sometimes it’s the other way round, and sometimes the time interval isn’t 20 minutes, but you get the idea – hot then cold then hot then cold without any regard for the actual cabin temperature.  Fiddling with heater controls helps a bit, but you need to keep readjusting.  There is definitely heat available, and I think there is refrigeration as well, but it’s not easy to tell – it’s been quite cold out recently.

I’m pretty sure that this problem is due to the fact that my local garage took the thing apart to fix an oil leak and they haven’t put it back together properly.  They now agree that there is a problem, but they don’t have any idea about how to fix it.  They suggested going to the local Vauxhall dealer.  I’m reluctant to do this since because the only time I took the car in there, the gave me an estimate of £460 to repair the wing mirror.  (A dab of glue fixed the problem in the end.)

Anybody got any suggestions?  This doesn’t seem to be a common problem, as I can’t find any similar reports on this forum.  The only thing that came near to describing my problem indicated that the vacuum pipes may have been put back together incorrectly, which could well be.  However, even with the very helpful diagram, I couldn’t trace all the pipes, so I haven’t got a clue whether it’s right or wrong.  

As may have gathered, I’m not very technical when it comes to motor cars, and I won’t be doing anything but the most simple repairs myself (changing light bulbs and fuses is about all I’m up to these days).

And the smell of burning oil has come back again since yesterday.

[markey mark]

try resetting the climate mate hold auto and off for ten seconds !

[jereboam]

Tried that - didn't help.  But thanks anyway.

[Elite Pete]

Try leaving the car ticking over for a while with the water tank cap off, enough for it to get up to temp and then some just incase theres air trapped in the cooling system.

[jereboam]

OK, I'll give that a try at the weekend.  But I don't think that will be the problem because the garage took it all apart and backflushed the heater matrix, so presumably they bled the system when they put it back together again.  But you never know - maybe they forgot.  I'll try anything before taking it to the Vauxhall dealer!

There may possibly be a water leak anyway - the oil leak that started off the problem was so small I only knew it was there because of the smell - we thought it might have been coolant at first.

[bob.dent]

Is your outside temp sensor working ok? If you're outside temp reading on the MID is fluctuating it could be that the sensor's faulty which will affect the climate operation.

Smell of burning oil could just be residue if you've recently had the rocker cover gaskets done - it can take a couple of weeks to disappear.

[jereboam]

I'm pretty sure the outside temperature sensor is working - the displayed temperature always looks reasonable and doesn't fluctuate significantly.

I never said rocker cover gasket, but you got it in one - brilliant!  But the repair was done six months ago, and it took nearer 4 weeks than 2 for the smell to go away.  I have been living with the dodgy heating through the winter, but as I said, I haven't been on any long journeys, so it's been survivable.  But I need to get it sorted - I've got to go to Bristol, then Wales and possibly Scotland in the next few weeks.  

I wouldn't want to catch a chill at my age

[bob.dent]

The only other thing that I've seen mentioned on here a couple of times that might cause temp fluctuations with the climate control is the air sampling fan. You might have to wait until Mark DTM or another of our expert "Omega doctors" is online that can tell you more.

[amba]

Sounds to me like a problem I have had with 2 megas now.The general thoughts behind the problem is the sampler fan which sits behind the climate control panel and can been seen by the cut-outs in the wooden grille between the 2 central dials.It,s purpose is to draw air across a circuit at the back of the dials and "sample" the cabin air temperature and adjust accordingly.The fault seems to be the fan either  stops or gets blocked with fluff etc.Possible solution is to blow cannister of compressed air into vent hole to clear fan.Test to see if it is working by holding a thin piece of tissue against grille holes and if the paper stays in place by the draw of air the fan is working,if not is is knackered.Have been advised that is is possible to replace fan with a computer type cooling fan from Maplins,size about 25mm,and then solder back into panel,but not tried that as yet with mine.Might be just worth buying a secondhand digital control panel and swapping over,if you can test that fan works.
Think the bottom line is the temprature control of heat/cooling in the cabin of megas is pretty poor,so don,t expect miracles unless up to date and the 200k miles I have driven them is an exception to the norm of other members.
Keep me posted with your results as it is a constant annoyance to me aswell.

[jereboam]

Brilliant! I'll have a look at that tonight.

I had a big Volvo, then a newish Mondeo before the Omega.  Before it died, the climate control on the Omega was the best of the three, but you're right, in absolute terms, it wasn't actually all that good.  

Thanks.

[jereboam]

I'm not sure if I'd ever noticed that grille before - if I had, I probably thought it was decoration.

Anyway, it was full of fluff, but when I removed that, there didn't seem to be much going on behind - no detectable airflow.

So who can tell me how to get the wooden panel off without ruining it?

But not tonight - got to go and watch the new series of Heroes.

[Entwood]

Before you start taking things apart .....  I seem to remember in previous threads that NOT ALL have a fan there, some do, some don't .... I would try a blast of compressed air through the grill just to clean things out .. it might just be enough.

Then if it stll plays up it might be time to dismantle things !!!

[hotel21]

Before you start taking things apart .....  I seem to remember in previous threads that NOT ALL have a fan there, some do, some don't .... I would try a blast of compressed air through the grill just to clean things out .. it might just be enough.

Then if it stll plays up it might be time to dismantle things !!!

Personally, I would suggest a wee suck with the vacuum cleaner and a paintbrush.  I always think that an airline into such a wee and sensitive space could be damaging.

[Entwood]

Sorry .. my computer background getting the better of me ... I actually mean from an aerosol can !!  The type used for computers or cameras, thye come with a nice small nozzle that should clean the area nicely ...

[Marks DTM Calib]

I assume that what you are finding is that the cabin temp is controlled reasonably well for a period of time and then it starts going cold, pop the temp up a few notches and its ok for a short while and then goes cold again......until the only way to get heat is to set the temp to Hi!

If so, this is due to the sampling fan (on pre-facelift cars) which either stops totally or runs slow due to failed electronics on the main PCB. It can also be slightly random as the fan might work fine sometimes.

The solution I use is to fit a 25mm, 10mm high 12V pcb fan and put it in place of the sampling fan.

Did this on mine and the temp control is superb.