oboytroyman
Troy
I have seen you can buy a whole eatc unit with all hard buttons. This is like 100 bucks though. Is there a cheaper solution to fix these buttons?
eatc soft buttons are gone
- Thread starter oboytroyman
- Start date
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Sure if you find one cheaper or free...
whiteman_01
Well-Known Member
If you go to the junk yard yourself, you can usually get them for about 12 bucks. Around here at least.
SHOstuff
SHO Member
so tell me where you could buy this eatc for $100?
the4biddendonut
Hurry up meow.
I've seen salvage yards charge $100+ for EATCs. I wouldn't pay that much, but aparently some people do, or else they wouldn't charge that much.
oboytroyman
Troy
I think i seen some at shosource for 85 plus shipping, they only have the blue green displaying eatc though.
jonheese
Used-To-Know-It-All
If you're looking for a hard-button green-faced unit (i.e. for a Gen1 car), you'll be looking for a while... It took me almost 3 years to find mine, and I just kinda stumbled into it after I'd given up looking.
Sorry. They're pretty rare.
Sorry. They're pretty rare.
the4biddendonut
Hurry up meow.
Find one out of a Grand Marque, or Crown Vic, or Continental (there are other cars too that will work). Then use this How-To and modify it to work.
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jonheese
Used-To-Know-It-All
Are they available with green backlight (to match the Gen1 soft-button units)?
the4biddendonut
Hurry up meow.
I found a green back-lit round button in a Grand Marquis. They are hard to find.
94SHO_Norfolk
New Member
Two of the faces on my soft button ETAC were gone, so I was trying to figure out how to remedy this. I went to the local pick and pull a couple of weeks ago, and no soft button units were to be found. Checked their inventory last night, and they put two '95 Tauruses and three '94's on the yard yesterday. Went there today, and low and behold, there was a '95 Taurus GL with a soft button ETAC, looked in showroom condition. I pulled the unit from the dash, and went about looking at some other Taurus dashes.
I pulled a hard button ETAC (this would have the three knobs, instead of soft buttons, correct?), and quickly realized that these two types of ETAC units are NOT plug and play. The wire clusters on the back are totally different, with the exception of the thick 6-wire cluster with the thick rubber base. Unless someone wanted to spend hours figuring out the wiring, and how to get the wires on a hard button ETAC to work on a soft button unit, or vice versa, the easiest way to do this is stick with the type of ETAC unit you currently have. With that being said, I realize a soft button ETAC unit with the button faces still in good shape will be much harder to find than the three-**** ETAC unit, but sometimes perseverance pays off.
The soft button ETAC unit I installed today cost $26 from the pick and pull. And I was a LOT more careful installing it in my car, than I was removing it from the pick and pull car, lol! I removed the lower dash piece under the steering wheel, so I could remove the two bolts on either side of the steering column that hold the dash surround piece in place (in addition to the two at the top), and GENTLY pulled the dash piece away from the dash, so I could access the four 7mm bolts that held the ETAC unit in place. Took me almost an hour to do the swap, because I was being careful, and didn't want to break anything. But it's in there now, looks showroom new, and it was $26 and an hour or so of my time well spent!
I pulled a hard button ETAC (this would have the three knobs, instead of soft buttons, correct?), and quickly realized that these two types of ETAC units are NOT plug and play. The wire clusters on the back are totally different, with the exception of the thick 6-wire cluster with the thick rubber base. Unless someone wanted to spend hours figuring out the wiring, and how to get the wires on a hard button ETAC to work on a soft button unit, or vice versa, the easiest way to do this is stick with the type of ETAC unit you currently have. With that being said, I realize a soft button ETAC unit with the button faces still in good shape will be much harder to find than the three-**** ETAC unit, but sometimes perseverance pays off.
The soft button ETAC unit I installed today cost $26 from the pick and pull. And I was a LOT more careful installing it in my car, than I was removing it from the pick and pull car, lol! I removed the lower dash piece under the steering wheel, so I could remove the two bolts on either side of the steering column that hold the dash surround piece in place (in addition to the two at the top), and GENTLY pulled the dash piece away from the dash, so I could access the four 7mm bolts that held the ETAC unit in place. Took me almost an hour to do the swap, because I was being careful, and didn't want to break anything. But it's in there now, looks showroom new, and it was $26 and an hour or so of my time well spent!
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SHOmethewayhome
BAD ROLE MODEL
first of all, its E A TC and that is an acronym for Electronic AUTOMATIC Temperature Control, IE... you set it at 75 and it will either run the heat or A/C to adjust till the cabin air temp sensor detects 75 ambient inside temp.
the one with the knobs is a AMTC (Analog Manual Temperature Control) you just turn the knobs to where you want the air coming out and whether you want it hot or cold.
a hard button EATC came in the later SHOs and other fords, it can be distinguished by having HARD plastic control buttons instead of the brittle, soft, easily broken by people with clumsy fingers buttons that most of us now have installed in our cars.
You can check my classified ad, I have both green and dark green(aka blue) hard button units brand new in the Ford box for $65 shipped. You can buy used, but do you know if it works and if all of the buttons light up?
90-91 models have a bright green display
92-95 models have a dark green display that a lot refer to as blue
If you pull a unit from another type of car, like a lincoln, the face is undersized and the bolt patterns are not the same. If you need a picture of the differences from brand new units, I can post them up later tonight when I get home.
90-91 models have a bright green display
92-95 models have a dark green display that a lot refer to as blue
If you pull a unit from another type of car, like a lincoln, the face is undersized and the bolt patterns are not the same. If you need a picture of the differences from brand new units, I can post them up later tonight when I get home.
94SHO_Norfolk
New Member
Thanks for the tip...so for others like me that don't know the difference between a "soft" button EATC and a "hard" button EATC, maybe someone could post some pics? If it was me, I'd much prefer the old-school rotary knobs, they're pretty indestructible, as opposed to the high-tech but easily broken buttons on an EATC...but that's just me...
SHOmethewayhome
BAD ROLE MODEL
i got a soft button in my 91. it works great and the buttons are intact. i'm just careful with it. i'd prefer a hard button.
this is a hardbutton, you can get them from shosource, RCM automotive and numerous private sellers on this forum if you have a 94, your car should have the indigo-ish darker green dash lights. it should be pretty straight forward to install it.
i have never heard of some-one retro fitting the basic AC controls into an EATC car or vice versa. and i've only seen one SHO with the manual controls.
94SHO_Norfolk
New Member
Okay, I'm confused here. That pic from "SHOmethewayhome" is the same unit that I have, and a couple of the button faces are gone. I found another unit just like it at the salvage yard today, with buttons in perfect condition, and swapped them out. If this is a "hard" button unit, what's a "soft" button unit look like? I thought this was the "soft" button type?
the4biddendonut
Hurry up meow.
The hard button and soft button EATCs look exactly the same.
94SHO_Norfolk
New Member
Whew...thought I was losing my mind there for a minute, lol...so at least now I understand the EATC is the electronic/digital gizmo with the poor quality buttons, and the manual version has the three knobs...given a preference, I'd still prefer the old-school rotary knobs...I'm not that lazy to turn the heat and a/c on by myself, lol...
jonheese
Used-To-Know-It-All
The difference between the soft-button and hard-button units is that the buttons are harder, and thus don't break, on the hard-button units.
If you got one out of a '95, it's almost certainly a hard-button, as I think all '95s got the improved hard-button design.
If you got one out of a '95, it's almost certainly a hard-button, as I think all '95s got the improved hard-button design.
94SHO_Norfolk
New Member
Thanks, that's good to know. I'm pretty sure the ETAC unit I pulled was out of a '95 Taurus GL, so hopefully it'll have the hard buttons. I cleaned the face up a bit (the previous owner must've been a smoker, there was some cigarette ash everywhere on the dash), then took a q-tip and dabbed some ArmorAll on the button faces, wiped them down, looks showroom new now. I might go back to the pick and pull and see if I can get some of those tan plastic trim things that go around the bottom of the front buckets. The ones on the passenger seat are pretty much gone, and I need a piece for the driver's seat. But I'm lovin' how those new ETAC buttons look!
