Damn defrost door broke..............

[Got HO?]

Fairly cold this morning for Georgia (13 degrees) & was on the way to my shop when I changed the airflow setting from defrost to center/footwell. I heard a crunching noise similar to a stone letting go from the tire as it rattles down the undercarraige. Now I have a little air through the center vents, no defrost & most of it through the footwells. :{



Has anyone done their own? It dosn't look too bad to replace, tedious, but not bad.



Comments?

 

[AK RAM]

Yeah. I did. Pretty common in the early 3rd Gens, especially up here where things can get real cold and brittle. There is a TSB for it. They remove the heater box and replace the lower half containing the door with a little better design. Took about 4 hours. I was stuck with just the opposite... plenty of defrost and in your face, but no floor heat.

 

[AK RAM]

Here is the TSB: http://www.dodgetruck.org/tsb/2003/24-004-03.htm

 

[Got HO?]

Thanks,

the TSB was helpful.

 

[JHardwick]

Mine has been stuck both ways



At least it's stuck on the defrost this time, being winter and all.



Been fixed twice at the dealer, gonna dig into it myself this time.

 

[rbattelle]

Been fixed twice at the dealer, gonna dig into it myself this time.

Depending on my schedule, I might want to join you for this job... might be good experience.



The entire instrument cluster has to come out. Sag2 says it's not really as bad as it sounds. I think I read in the latest TDR magazine about someone who did it on a 2nd gen... procedure seems to be about the same for us.



-Ryan

 

[DarcyWood]

Defrost door

This sounds really familiar. We had a 93 Grande Cherokee Ltd that had the exact problem. The defrost / heat door would bind and break so the floor heat would be all we had. After three teardowns to replace the little plastic control arm (8+ hours each time - under warranty), the service tech said he tested it before putting the entire vehicle together. He said he could see it binding and predicted another breakage. He ordered a new heater body, saying it must be warped. Unfortunately, they were back ordered and would take a while. We traded that vehicle a month later. I informed them to cancel the order. About six months later they called that the parts were in.



Hopefully this will not be an ongoing issue for you.

 

[Got HO?]

Cover me! I'm goin' in tonight! Oo. Oo.



Got the parts today, all $70. 00 worth.

 

[rbattelle]

Cover me! I'm goin' in tonight! Oo. Oo.



Got the parts today, all $70. 00 worth.

Take some pics, for cryin' out loud!!!



-Ryan

 

[Jeremiah]

DC paid for mine!

My heater quit blowing on my feet at 47,800 miles. Someone on this forum suggested that DC might cover it because of the TSB and the fact it is a KNOWN problem. I tried that and it worked! Cost me $100 instead of $700. Thanks to whoever suggested that!

 

[whamby]

Cover me! I'm goin' in tonight! Oo. Oo.



Got the parts today, all $70. 00 worth.

Got HO



Did you have any luck doing this yourself? If so how long did it take and how difficult was it?



Thanks,

Scott

 

[Got HO?]

Scott,



I did it myself & was glad I did. I took my time over the course of a few evenings after hours (I own a BMW, Porsche & Mercedes repair shop) because I was too busy to work on it during normal hours. Its not a difficult repair at all, just somewhat time consuming, especially if you take the trouble to put ALL of the fasteners back where they should be. My work ethic is such that I want anyone to look at my finished repair & not be able to tell that it was ever taken apart

I did take a few photos but am not sure how to post them here. I can e-mail them if you can post them.



Alan.

 

[DPKetchum]

Your WELCOME!

 

[whamby]

Got HO?



I sent you a PM.