My Fix to Sticky Climate Control Knobs!
My Fix to Sticky Climate Control *****!
I have a 2011 LR4 that I bought used from Florida. It Had 40K miles on it when I bought it 3 years ago and now has about 60K miles. I live in the lowcountry of South Carolina where summer temperatures are often above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and it's ALWAYS humid since we're on an island. Because of this my climate control ***** have started to "deteriorate". They became stick to the point that I didn't even want to touch them and every time my dogs rode in the car even their hair was the first thing to stick to the *****. So I called the Land Rover dealership and they told me that I would have to replace the entire climate control unit itself at a cost of $800 for just the unit. I did a little poking around and found that to not be true. So It turns out, if you are gentle enough, you can remove these ***** by simply pulling and putting pressure on the right area as you are getting them to release. I took them off and started with some Goo Gone project prep and a tooth brush head. This by itself didn't do much. I have the water heater at my house turned up all the way so it's SCALDING hot. I found that with some dish gloves to not burn myself, if I sprayed the goo gone on the ***** and then ran it under the hot water while scrubbing with a rag, that this stickiness is simply some poor coating that comes off and leaves you with a nice new-looking ****. I'm going to try to attach the photos that I took.
1st Gear
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Sticky Climate *****
Thanks for the tip. I too am having the same problem with my 2010 LR4. I came up with the same search results that stated the complete climate control assembly needed replaced. I will attempt the method that you used.
Thanks In Advance.
Thanks In Advance.
6th Gear
Joined: Jun 2017
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
P.S. I used soapy water and a scotch brite style scrubber cloth, the nasty goo is gone and they look like new. However you will lose some of the grip. I am contemplating wether to plastidip mine for some grip.
Have a a nice day.
4th Gear
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
I went down the same path to discover they were not available to purchase individually. However my hot water/dish soap/scrub experiment left me with sticky *****. I'll give the goo-gone a shot.
For @bahnburner, it's pretty simple, you just pull them off while applying gentle pressure in the middle. They do make a slight snapping noise on the way out that could be disconcerting, but mine were fine.
For @bahnburner, it's pretty simple, you just pull them off while applying gentle pressure in the middle. They do make a slight snapping noise on the way out that could be disconcerting, but mine were fine.
1st Gear
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Easier (maybe easiest) fix!
I never removed the air conditioning control ***** on my 2011 LR4. I have three kids, so baby wipes-a-plenty. Bored one day sitting in my truck waiting on a sub contractor to show up, I took a few baby wipes and began wiping away the goo. With some pressure from your fingernail, and whatever the hell is in baby wipes that seems to remove everything 8-) I was able to get them to a hard plastic (new) finished look. Just like the radio volume and station tuning ***** above.
Hope this helps. I was even at one time considering buying a completely new a/c control unit (over $400 US). Thank god for baby wipes.
[img]blob:https://landroverforums.com/9db32c18-dbbc-4f01-8096-b905dc01131b
Hope this helps. I was even at one time considering buying a completely new a/c control unit (over $400 US). Thank god for baby wipes.
[img]blob:https://landroverforums.com/9db32c18-dbbc-4f01-8096-b905dc01131b
Last edited by dubu2; May 31, 2018 at 08:35 AM.
Rock Crawling
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 304
Likes: 30
From: Millstadt, IL
just don't use the Clorox type wipes. My nephew thinks wiping everything with this stuff is a cleaner. Well, after he was done, no lights. He had dripped enough Clorox wipe in the headlight switch that it did everything but melt the copper in the switch. Plus blowing relays. Took him a couple days to trace it all down.
1st Gear
Joined: Feb 2019
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
I had the same problem in my 2011 Range Rover Sport. I tried the methods recommended here and found it did not remove all the stickiness. So I got a cotton rag and soaked it with rubbing alcohol and heavily wiped the ***** again. It did the trick and they are coating free. Thanks all for the suggestions. Saved me $800 replacing the entire panel. The ***** are good as new!
