Any idea whay the ECC would blink for approximately 2-3 minutes after starting the 97 SSEi, if I don't know of any issues with heat and cold temperatures? Heat goes up to 132 degrees and cold down to 40 degrees when measured through the center vent and seems to go up and down with proper adjustment.

The ECC blinks because the HVAC has (had) sensed a fault in the system. If you get air from the vents you want, and if you can select the tempurature and fan speed that you want, and everything seems to work, then ignore it.....seriously.

If there was a problem that has been fixed or no longer is present, It will go away by itself but it takes about 40 drive cycles and can take a week or so depending on how much you drive. If the fault exists, you will discover it eventually (it could be intermittent) when something in the system does not react to your selecting it, or something behaves erratically. Only other option is to get a Tech II scanner on it (usuallly $80-$100 for a dealer scan) to have them tell you what code the programmer sees (saw).

There are 7 or 8 faults that can cause the ECC to blink, not all of them are hot/cold related. Some are airflow, some are fan spped, some are memory to keep the setting you slected in memory from the last time you started the car. Another is a communication fault I think.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Bob, based on your recomendation and the fact that I can not find any fault in the HVAC system, I will wait a couple of weeks to let the ECC go through the drive cycle.

To add some further detail and confirm some data, I looked up an older post by me about the blinking ECC. According to the FSM, there are 7 items that will cause the programmer to capture a code and set the ECC display to blink.

1. External temp sensor fault
2. Internal temp sensor fault
3. Solar sensor fault
4. Air mix door fault
5. Heat/AC contol panel fault
6. Loss of "keep alive memory" in HVAC programmer
7. Loss of serial data fault

After 50 ignition cycles AFTER no fault is detected, the blinking will stop.

Bob, you are a man with much information, I do believe you are a keeper. I hope you stick around for a long time to come cause as I've said before, "Maymyaswellasyourbonneliveforever".

Frank, I just saw your other post about the Radio and disconnecting your battery. Did your ECC blink before you did the battery disconnect for your radio or did it just start after? The reason I ask, is that we have had our fair share, here, of airmix actuator problems after a battery disconnect and reconnect.

My thought is that, before working on your Bonne (other h-body), turn the ECC to "OFF" before disconnecting the battery, then reconnect the battery and start the car, before reactiviating the ECC to "AUTO" or any other function. I tmay not help with airmix actuator failures, but I do it all the time in hopes that my airmix gear won't crack, again.

Bob, the ECC was blinking before but I recharged the A/C about an hour before I disconnected the battery terminal.

I did not set the ECC to the off position before disconnecting the battery since I figured the ignition is turned off so why would that matter.

The ECC and programmer may have some power feed to keep memory and settings remembered. Not to say that the entire system is HOT at all times, but there may be a connection that is active with ignition off and reconnection of the battery may cause the system to reset or recalibrate.....causing the airmix actuator grear to crack (maybe only those gears that are already failing or brittle from age)......we're really not sure. The system may perform this "self-calibration" on every start-up (even with the battery cables connected) and if that'* the case, then turning off the HVAC before battery disconnect may do nothing, but we just feel that there are enough airmix actuator failures after a battery disconnect that we think there is a correlation and are suggesting that owners turn the sytem "OFF" as a precautionary measure. Basically, we are hopeful that if members do this, then we may save someone from an airmix failure, but we really can't say for sure.