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© 1997 Brian F. Schreurs
Even we have a disclaimer.

The subject is a 1993 Pontiac Bonneville, but the knobs (GM part no. 016190018 for a set of three) are the same for quite a few GM products. Even the teardown should be similar, especially for 1992 to present Oldsmobile Eighty-Eights and Buick LeSabres, as they are all basically the same car.

If you carefully wedge a screwdriver under the edge, the plastic fascia just pops right off.

To get to the climate control mechanism, we must take apart the dash board. It is not immediately apparent how the faceplate comes off, so we'll save you from contorting yourself under the dash (like we did) to find out how it's built. The faceplate is all one huge piece (from the driver's left-hand vent all the way to the stereo) which has snap-clips holding it to the dash.

Since we were already under the dash, we started the faceplate by pushing out the three lowest clips with a screwdriver. You can skip this, however, and just do the entire job by prying it loose at the edges with a long, skinny flathead. Be sure not to overstress the faceplate, because GM probably charges an arm and a leg for it. Get the driver well under the panel to put the pressure as close to the clips as possible.

With the faceplate removed, it's a simple matter to unbolt the climate control panel. The job is much easier if you have a Torx T-15 (GM's favorite fastener, guaranteed to drive you nuts), but the bolts can also be removed with a socket wrench.

Make sure you really need to take your car this far apart before doing it.

Now that the climate control panel is in your hand, you can start figuring out why it's not working. For us, the knob itself was broken.

The knob just pulls right off. You can use that screwdriver again if it needs a little encouragement. Then push the new one on in its place. You'll probably want to swap all three, because a) they won't match unless you do; b) allegedly, GM changed the design of the switch so it would be more durable; c) you had to buy three knobs anyway, remember?

Button-up is the opposite of tear-down. You did keep track of those little bolts, didn't you?

Yeah, yeah, we could have just pulled the knobs off from the beginning, and left the dashboard alone! But remember, when we started this job we didn't know why the climate control was broken. So it was an easy fix this time. You might be able to save a lot of labor by pulling the knobs off first, checking for cracks or chips in the center section.