Ever since I bought the car, I’d had four climate control errors, and after an attempt at adaptation, two:
328965 — Actuator, front air distribution flap B1091 54 [009] — Missing calibration/basic setting Confirmed — Tested after clearing the memory 329989 — Actuator, defroster flap B1090 54 [009] — Missing calibration/basic setting Confirmed — Tested after clearing the memory
I found recommendations online that adaptation could help fix these errors, but as I mentioned above, all I managed to do was reduce the number of errors. After checking the vents in the cabin by hand, I realized there was no airflow to the windshield, and now that winter is coming that option would be pretty important.
Fellow club members from the local chat suggested that most likely the actuator motor near the glove box had failed, and as I understood it, this problem is fairly common on the Audi A3. The guys told me I needed a motor with this part number: VAG 5Q0 907 511 D
At first I wanted to buy the motor from a parts breaker, but folks in the parts-breaking chat talked me out of it, since it could fail again quickly too. Penny wise, pound foolish. So I decided to buy a new one.
I found some local guys at the Audi Expert shop who were able to quickly swap this motor for me. I wasn’t there during the replacement myself, but the guys took a few photos.
Before starting work, disconnect the battery terminal.
To get to this motor, you need to remove the infotainment unit.
Then the glove box cover, and you’ll have access to the heater motor.
After that, the motor gets replaced and everything is put back together. The whole process took the guys about an hour.
After replacing the motor, we check that it works — set the climate control to Max mode and see whether air blows toward the windshield. Everything worked for me.
But the errors in the climate control unit still need to be cleared. We connect to the climate control unit with VCDS. If you just hit “clear errors” on the unit, the errors won’t go away. You need to run adaptation. Go into adaptation mode, select the flap end-stop check option, hit Enter (Test), and the climate control starts running at full power, cycling through and adjusting all the flaps one by one; once it’s done, clear the errors again. After all that, there shouldn’t be any climate errors left.
I’m only left with the satellite radio error, which I haven’t managed to beat yet.
Cost of the job: 2,000 UAH. Mileage: 128,262 km