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[Olddavid]

Yesterday, I was driving and noticed a slight burning smell in the cabin. I immediately pulled off the road and disconnected the negative battery cable. Had AAA tow it home. Today, I re-connected the battery and after starting, found the climate control panel was completely blank - no reading at all. No function of any kind. I went through all the fuses in the under-dash panel and all under the hood and none blown anywhere. Is this a common failure? My car is 1997 Catera with 76k miles. I have babied this car for two years now, and thanks to your advice, have gotten it to the point where its reliable and reasonably economical to run. It seems to run fine even without heat or defrost. What have you done when faced with this problem? I can get another dash panel at the local pick and pull. Is this the way to go? Thank you in advance for your help and advice.

[Kevin Wood]

I can't remember having heard of a climate panel failing before, so a 2nd hand one makes sense, as they are usually reliable.

It might be worth getting the old one out first and trying to find the source of the smoke, though.

[Johnny English]

I can't remember having heard of a climate panel failing before, so a 2nd hand one makes sense, as they are usually reliable.

It might be worth getting the old one out first and trying to find the source of the smoke, though.

I'd join Kevin as no point to change the control panel if some feed cabel/wire went rubbish. In case of having electrical feed issue but the panel to be changed then you did nothing. Good luck David! 

[doz]

I thought the Catera had different AC controls to the Omega ones?