04 HVAC Knob Broken

[engineercorolla]

The climate control knob that changes the location air blows out of broke on my 04 Corolla S. Instead of clicking into predefined locations it now moves freely between all settings, meaning the knob can get stuck between two settings. Has anyone else had this problem? What needs to be done to fix it? The cars out of warrantee so I'm considering fixing it myself. I've seen detailed instructions on how to disassemble the center dashboard mentioned on this forum but no links posted.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. While I'm back there I thought I might swap out the green lighting scheme for a white one to match my instrument panel. Advice on that would help too. Thanks.

[toyomoho]

Some of these switches have a plate with small indents at each switch position. A ball bearing is forced against this plate by a spring. As the switch is rotated, the ball engages each indent to lock the switch position. Sometimes this bearing just falls out or gets stuck. The result is a variable position switch.

[engineercorolla]

Thanks for the reply. I found this website that shows whats behind the knobs.

http://www.net4free.org/Other/nshahzad/stereo.html

It looks like all the climate control knobs are part of one assembly. It doesn't look very easy to fix but I may give it a try anyway.