Heater stuck on?

MoparMap

VCA National President
VCA Officer
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Posts
2,439
Reaction score
272
Location
Kansas
So this past weekend I decided to finally drain and refill the coolant on my car as I think it may have been original to the car. Got everything buttoned up and tuned the heater on full blast with the engine running to make sure I was purging the heater core and think I may have just made my life miserable. I tuned it back to full cold and turned the A/C on to try to cool things back down and wasn't getting any refreshment. Figured maybe everything was just really heat soaked so I didn't think much of it. Hop in the car to go to work this morning and the termperature dial on the HVAC controls doesn't appear to do anything. My guess is the blend door actuator has either siezed or the door itself somehow jammed. Looking at the service manual it indicates a full dash removal to get to it. Has anyone ever had a similar problem and could offer a less intensive repair option? I was going to see where I could reach my hands, but I'm not terribly optimisic at the moment. Maybe I can pull the glovebox to get to it, but wont't know until I try.
 
OP
OP
MoparMap

MoparMap

VCA National President
VCA Officer
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Posts
2,439
Reaction score
272
Location
Kansas
So I'm at a bit of a loss here. I took part of the dash apart when I got home operated all the controls while listening with the engine off and I can hear the doors moving and the motors loading up when they get to the end of their travel. I double checked and the A/C clutch is engaging and turning, so that's not the problem. Felt the lines going into the evaporator as well and they were cold, so I'm really confused as to what the problem might be. The air coming out isn't just warm, it's hot. Is there some kind of valve or something in the heater core hoses? The ony thing I can think of that I did was I used a vacuum in reverse to blow air through the coolant hoses to purge as much as I could when I flushed and refilled it. Could I have pupped a valve backwards or somthing?
 
OP
OP
MoparMap

MoparMap

VCA National President
VCA Officer
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Posts
2,439
Reaction score
272
Location
Kansas
Well, for anyone following along at home, took the entire dash out last night and found the culprit. The end of the blend door had broken off at the servo. Have debated several fixes, but think I'm going to try gluing the piece back on and driving a small screw through it to keep it together and give it some more structure. I have to take the HVAC housing out otherwise, which would mean pulling heater and A/C hoses and I'd really rather avoid that as much as possible. Took several pictures though, so I'll see about starting up another thread with dash disassembly if anyone is interested. Not nearly as bad of a job as I was expecting, though I've basically done half of it numerous times before, so I was pretty familiar with it.
 

ViperJeff

Legacy Member
VCA Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Posts
4,119
Reaction score
97
Location
Idaho
Yes, following

That damn blend door is an issue on a lot of Dodge products
 

ViperDad

Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Posts
92
Reaction score
1
Well, for anyone following along at home, took the entire dash out last night and found the culprit. The end of the blend door had broken off at the servo. Have debated several fixes, but think I'm going to try gluing the piece back on and driving a small screw through it to keep it together and give it some more structure. I have to take the HVAC housing out otherwise, which would mean pulling heater and A/C hoses and I'd really rather avoid that as much as possible. Took several pictures though, so I'll see about starting up another thread with dash disassembly if anyone is interested. Not nearly as bad of a job as I was expecting, though I've basically done half of it numerous times before, so I was pretty familiar with it.

I had a similar issue with the air mix chamber under the hood, passenger side: ended up cracking the flap to go from outside air to cabin air. Figured it was a simpler solution to leave out that huge chamber and silicone an aluminum plate over the opening. Please post the details of your work as I may have to check out my unit. Seems that I may be having that issue also. For anyone chasing fan noise, besides debris in the plenum, the motor by passenger seat can be lubed somewhat with the popping back of the vent tube. It gives access to the bottom bearing/bushing and a squirt of lube seems to help as mine has stopped squealing.
 
OP
OP
MoparMap

MoparMap

VCA National President
VCA Officer
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Posts
2,439
Reaction score
272
Location
Kansas
I had a similar issue with the air mix chamber under the hood, passenger side: ended up cracking the flap to go from outside air to cabin air. Figured it was a simpler solution to leave out that huge chamber and silicone an aluminum plate over the opening. Please post the details of your work as I may have to check out my unit. Seems that I may be having that issue also. For anyone chasing fan noise, besides debris in the plenum, the motor by passenger seat can be lubed somewhat with the popping back of the vent tube. It gives access to the bottom bearing/bushing and a squirt of lube seems to help as mine has stopped squealing.
\

I never would have thought about just lubing through that opening. Mine actually blew the resistor a year or two ago so I pulled the whole motor out and disassembled and lubed it. Figured it wouldn't hurt to try and it was free vs buying a new motor. Still working just fine ever since.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
153,139
Posts
1,681,565
Members
17,640
Latest member
SDViper
Top