I have an 03 MCS w/ 40K easy miles (orig. owner). It does not get driven much anymore and is basically awaiting a vacation home for duties there.

I decided to drive it some the last few weeks and the first time I started it up, I got down the driveway and realized the climate control was dead - no lights on, can't adjust anything - completely out. I pushed all the buttons and nothing happened. So, I stopped the car, turned it off and restarted it. This worked - the climate control came on and worked normally for the rest of the drive.

Two days later, I started the car up and it worked fine.

The next day I went to go somewhere and it was dead again. I did the same thing where I stopped the car and restarted it - got nothing. I cycled thru the ignition again and it came on fine.

What is going on? Am I getting a short? I'm going to replace the fuse to see if that does anything, but has anyone heard of this issue before? TIA

 

My '03 has done exactly this - twice - since I've owned it, and turning the key off and on again always fixes it. Let me know what if anything you find out, OK?

I don't think it's a fuse, fuses don't fix themselves, unless it's corrosion on the contacts. I'm thinking a relay somewhere......

 

This is the reason why I ordered my 2005 with the manual climate controls. No worries over glitches in electronics as these components age.

 

This is a known problem. My 2004 has done it since new. There was a TSB on it - has to do with a ground wire, I believe - but it did not eliminate my occasional problem. Because it doesn't happen very often, and always returns to normal by timply turning off the ignition key, I have learned to live with it.

 

Same here....It happened probably once every two months for me. It actually happened today for me and for some reason the radio was gone with it. I restarted the car and everything was fixed.

 

hmm...crazy! are there any threads that deal with locating the ground wire?