Steel wire that's in the middle panel hook to dummy button

[jerry1977]

Does anyone know what is the purpose of steel wire that ends with like plastic bayonet inside one of the dummy button under the AC actuator button (in/out) circulation button.
I was installing after market radio and seems that one of the clip that holds that plastic part in snatched off. I have managed to put it back and seems its holding but not sure if there is any force on that wire at all and if would that pull it out?

Thanks

J.

[ColonelPanic]

That's a cable that is linked to the airflow direction knob that ties into the recirculate button. If you have recirculate on and move the knob to floor/defrost or just straight defrost, this cable forces the recirculate button to disengage... As to be blowing fresh air on the windshield instead of recirculated air which causes more fogging.

It's hard to remove the cable sometimes and can end up getting the switch out of whack so it's difficult to keep the cable back in. Recently I had some recall work done and they had to pull the bezel which after doing so they damaged (among many other items) the A/C/recirc switch assembly where the cable no longer wants to stay in. If you're having problems keeping the cable in, try bending down the tabs a little on the switch - that seems to be helping hold ours in (for now.)

[joatmon]

I've driven vibes a lot over the years, and I think I have set the air flow to recirculate maybe two times. Once when stuck behind an old oil smoking truck, once when the recirc motor started flapping.

If you don't hook it back up, no big deal. If you do use recirculate a lot, then you have to remember to manually turn it off when going into defrost. Since I don't use it, it's not an issue for me, so I leave it disconnected, for no particular reason other than it's one less thing to deal with when pulling the radio bezel,

[jerry1977]

Thanks for the clarification. Thought as something with air control. Now if the disengaging works then the cable is ok if I understood that from the post correct?

Thanks

Jerry,