thefragger Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Hi all! I don't know much. I'm looking at getting my first car, but looking at a 2005 Legacy/Outback, I notice that some come with the lame three-knob HVAC control and others have the fancy dual-zone control. What's all involved in converting from lame to fancy controls? I image there's some controller and vents that need to be installed... ? I'm not afraid to pull the motor if I have to--have hoist, do lift. P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el5y Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 From what I understand you need to get sensors and dampers and wiring harnesses to convert a manual single zone to the auto dual zone. Not really sure its worth the trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefragger Posted July 10, 2014 Author Share Posted July 10, 2014 Yea, and from researching the issue further I've found those with the dual-zone controls aren't particularly fond of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lingling1337 Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Yeah the dual zone isn't particularly good or fancy. Plus you need a $360 trim kit to install a radio on dual hvac, versus the $20 Metra kit for single zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmedic Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 You don't wanna go there. Buck up and live with the anguish of having to twist a knob when you want to be warmer or colder. . . or limit your choices to a GT Limited/LL Bean/3.0R. . . and hope you never wanna change radios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefragger Posted July 12, 2014 Author Share Posted July 12, 2014 Yea, it seems like a bag of cats for sure. Can I squeeze a double-DIN radio in, or am I stuck with single DIN with the three-knob controls? Additionally, I recall that the dual-air climate shared a PCB with the radio. Is this the case with the three-dial setup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmedic Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 No. Manual HVAC is it's own independent console. Install kits have you move the knobs over from the radio panel to the install kit bezel but that's it. You can run double or single din. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefragger Posted July 12, 2014 Author Share Posted July 12, 2014 No. Manual HVAC is it's own independent console. Install kits have you move the knobs over from the radio panel to the install kit bezel but that's it. You can run double or single din. Exactly what I wanted to know, thank you! I've only had the car two days and I've already rewired the rear hatch (added 8 inches of tough silicone wire through the boot). Thinking about upgrading many other things at this point... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkumaMax Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 If you really want to do it its not fun. Takes about $1200 or more to get all the parts and a lot of elbow grease to remove the whole dash and rewire the whole fire wall. I would say if you know what you are doing the wiring alone will take a weeks worth of time. I mean 5 hours a day week worth. That's not even including going through the dash wiring schematics from your model and the GT model to figure out what wire needs to go where. Then I'm not even sure how long it would take to get the Hvac unit in there. If you have 3 months of down time I would say that is good enough to get it working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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