HVAC Controls Freaking Out

[rbattelle]

Last week I was driving to work and the dash air was blowing cold despite being set all the way on hot. Cycling the temp. dial to cold then back to hot fixed it.



Today on a short road trip it finally broke for good. Turn the temp knob to full hot, you only get cold air. Crank it down to full cold, and the system goes into "floor vent only" mode until you swtich to panel only. Turn back to hot, and you still get cold.



I believe others have experienced this behavior and it turned out to be a blend door actuator gone bad. I'm at 35000 miles and this is the first time I've had this trouble. Can anyone comment on what their dealer did to fix the problem?

 

[Tony T.]

Acuator TSB

Ryan, I though what happened to your truck was what was going on with mine last winter,but the problem seemed to disappear,probaly temporaily or possible stuck position at the time. The acuator TSB I believe consist of about 3 hour job, seeing your at 35K mileage I would visit the dealership asap. Like I said I though mine was going out, but everything has been working fine since. I look any time for it to start acting up again,or hope if it is going out will do so while in warranty.





Tony

 

[rbattelle]

Tony,

I'm not aware of a blend door TSB... can you point me to it?



The service manual says the instrument cluster must be removed to service the HVAC unit. THE ENTIRE PANEL!! EVERYTHING YOU SEE WHEN FACING FORWARD IN THE VEHICLE, INCLUDING THE STEERING WHEEL AND COLUMN! (not yelling at you, Tony, I'm yelling at any Dodge engineers that might be reading).

This is a problem for me, since I've installed tons of accessories and associated wiring behind there. The good news is, after pouring over the diagrams in the service manual and looking at the area on my truck behind the glove box, I believe the HVAC system for single-zone climate controls can be serviced without removal of the entire instrument panel. At least, that's what I'm praying for! Otherwise I'll have to uninstall most of what I've installed so the techs don't get confused.

Maybe I'll ask Sag2 about this...



-Ryan

 

[rbattelle]

Uh-oh. I was just reading the TSB for the broken defrost blend door. It requires removal of the instrument panel. This is curious, since only 3. 2 hours is allotted for the job, yet removal of the instrument panel requires an extraordinary amount of work!



My truck goes in tomorrow morning for service. Tonight I will remove my gauges, switches, and auxillary electrical system. Wish me luck!

 

[Tony T.]

Ryan were you able to make contact with the tech in order to find out the complete low down on the procedure.



An by the way good luck, an let us know how it turns out mine could be next.





Tony

 

[rbattelle]

Okay, this is embarassing but good

Well, it turns out I'm just a doofus. I got into the dash tonight to start disassembling all my gauges and wiring and just after getting started I decided to try it one more time with the dash apart. Well, when I turned the vent control knob I could hear all the appropriate servos rotating. Puzzled, I started the truck up and to my surprise, everything appeared to be in working order. Then I noticed: last time I had the dash apart I failed to fully engage one of the 2 connectors on the back of the heater control panel.



Snapped it in, and everything is wonderful. Thank God I didn't have to remove all that wiring I've put in there. Tomorrow I will cancel my service appointment. A word to the wise: if you have trouble with any of your controls, check the connectors first... don't be a doofus like me.

 

[Tony T.]

Glad you got it fixed.





Tony