Peugeot 407 'No Cutting' Lower Heater Flap Fix Via Top Vent

[@robertcartwright6117]

Followed your idea, worked a treat..... Hardest part was trying not to get thickened epoxy on the seals etcc.... Especially before the auto power down shut the flap all by itself...... 😂😢😅. Thanks for the video. 6 months and still working fine. 👍

[@SamHocking]

Cool. Not the easiest but worth the crooked neck and aircon after haha

[@LosAngelesRaiders]

Mate, thats absolutely brilliant. It must be more work and mess to basically cut a hole out of the side of the where the flaps live and reseal it again if you don't have the right equipment. Although your way is a tad more fiddly, its certainly a lot more simple and less messy. I have also learnt how to access the flaps through this video whereas ithers didn't show this, so thanks!

[@Zanderman2000]

For Citroen, I had to disassemble the entire dashboard. It probably had 50 different screws and bolts. I’m going to take the stepmotors off so no breaking flaps anymore. In winter I can use a screwdriver to turn the flaps to the warm side and in the summer back to the cold side. In my area, AC is not mandatory in the summer, so it doesn’t matter if it’s fancy automatic or not. I can always control the fan speed or open a window. The disassembly was such a hellish project that I would rather use a screwdriver to turn the flaps than automatic air conditioning for just a couple of months and then it will break again !! The car is not that great design overal so I will gladly put it in bale soon if the AC unit breaks again. French cars always tend to give same impression over and over again.

[@SamHocking]

To be fair to Peugeot & Citroen, these heater units are not made by them, but certainly whoever picked the type of plastic for these flaps didn't test them haha!

[@Zanderman2000]

@@SamHocking In reality there is no single entity called Peugeot or Citroen that produces anything in a first place. Every car brand has a web of suppliers and plants and thousands of workers that produces different stuff for the "company". The Citroen and Peugeot as a company that supply cars as a end product are 100% responsible of faulty units used in their cars. It doesn't matter if they are made by martians.

[@SamHocking]

@@Zanderman2000 Yep, could easily have been in a BMW, that's all I mean. Valeo make for them too.

[@Zanderman2000]

@@SamHocking Yes, but I have two 523i bmws, theres really no faults in them if you don't count the rust. But it was common in 90s and early 2000 cars. The other one has 500tkm in it and stil had original shocks. I actually removed these shocks to the newer model because it had broken custom shocks, lol. The newer model was neckletted badly. The transmission was destroyed because low oil level etc. Luckily I had the old model from which I took many parts. I actually hate bmw because of the rust and complexity. If they have anything to repair it is very complex too. Luckily they are very solid.

[@Zanderman2000]

I have actually considered these faulty flaps, failing blower motors, and faulty fuel pump relays on Peugeot and started to think if the factory fuses are actually sized too big for these units. - When you look at the fuel pump its default 15A fuse, I tried 7,5a fuse and it still works (=90Watts). That larger fuse can cause too much current to the fuel pump (relay) and while the relay and the circuit board is not build to handle such current it will burn due to resistance. You can see this burn damage in many videos handling this particular fault. - I can imagine same thing happens with the ac blower motor when they put 40A fuse default and that means almost 500W in 12V system, the blower motor itself is 170W so you are going to burn the motor with 40A (500Watts) at some point of time when the current gets too high accidentaly in the system. - With the flaps motor it might be the same problem, too much power breaks the flaps. You could reduce their power by reducing the fuse. But what fuse controls the flap motors? I haven't figured it out.

[@SamHocking]

Could be, although I think a lot of it is simply poor design (the main shaft should be tubular for maximum torsional stiffness) and the plastic isn't able to cope with the heat / hot cold cycles. The shaft takes all the hot air directly on it and you ca nsee it visibly twist when looking down through the top vent and activating the flaps.

[@Zanderman2000]

Im just curious did you repair last? Mine broke immediately there was -30 frost I just heared the crack and there it was, all for nothing. It was once already repaired properly with new blue flaps in a shop. I just used epoxy and reinforcement to fix these flaps. Itlast for 4 months, LOL. But I think the new flaps could have broken as easily propably atleast with time. It is a nightmare ac-unit :)

[@SamHocking]

Still going strong. Barely ever gets below freezing down here in Kent though. It's the heat that weakens the plastic, then temp change imo.

[@johanagge4561]

How did you get the clip on there? Did you open it up completely? Must been a hassle to close it down there?

[@SamHocking]

Just thread it through the crack and then back over it before clamping down. You might need to hold the crack open while you do that, it's fiddly.

[@Laugenstnge]

sadly mine is completely broken off, unless there is a way to get the flap out, stick it together and put it back from up there i see no chance in fixing this besides removing the dash and thats something im not ready to do, uff

[@SamHocking]

Yeah, this fix does require the break to be somewhere along the shaft so the jubilee clip can be slid through the crack, back over and tightened. If it's broken clean off the flap itself or servo end there's not much you can do other than cut and replace in the more traditional fix.

[@khalidacosta7133]

Smart hack!