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No Heat 2007 Town & Country

97K views 100 replies 36 participants last post by  imickey503 
#1 ·
Can anyone tell me how to access the Hot/Cold control Vent Flap.
 
#62 ·
first, how does one "thank" a member? I owe a couple....

I'm back where I started on this project. If I run the AC for a while, the door goes a bit too far and sticks. i do the calibrate procedure (ign on, press rear window and recirc simultaneously for several seconds, it does things for about 20 seconds with the lights flashing alternately, then settles down) and after a while, stuck. again. I drilled a hole about where the door should stop and ran in a long screw as a second, backup stop, it overpowers it and flexes the plastic (that's some strong motor!)

Help! I might actually need heat someday....
 
#65 ·
Since you have already tried different HVAC head units, it really sounds like the actuator motor itself may be bad. Yeah, it sound strange, being that it moves the door, BUT these motors are also supposed to send a signal back to the HVAC unit with the doors position. Since it is going past it's stop point and continues to try to move it further, that would be my next guess.

If you can, try swapping out a known working motor (recirc door, etc.) with the one that is having the problem. According to the service manual, they are completely interchangeable.
The blend door actuators are interchangeable with each other, as well as with the actuators for the mode door and the recirculation air door.
Below is a quote from the service manual, which explains things a bit better than I can...

Each blend door actuator is connected to the heater-A/C control module through the vehicle electrical system by a dedicated two-wire take out and connector of the HVAC wire harness. The blend door actuator can move the blend air door in two directions. When the heater-A/C control module pulls the voltage on one side of the motor connection high and the other connection low, the blend air door will move in one direction. When the module reverses the polarity of the voltage to the motor, the blend air door moves in the opposite direction. When the module makes the voltage to both connections high or both connections low, the blend air door stops and will not move. These same motor connections also provide a feed-back signal to the heater-A/C control module. This feedback signal allows the module to monitor the operation and relative positions of the blend door actuator and the blend air door. The heater-A/C control module learns the blend air door stop positions during the calibration procedure and will store a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) for any problems it detects in the blend door actuator circuits. The blend door actuator can be diagnosed using a DRBIII scan tool. Refer to the appropriate diagnostic information.
 
#63 ·
You might want to go to a salvage yard and pick up another door. My van has over 232,000 miles on it and it is not worth all the trouble.....my door "hinge" broke once and then again after I epoxied it together. Now i just have 2 setting warm or cold. I close the door in summer for AC and open it the other way and duct tape it in place. I use a piece of sponge and duck tape to seal the opening I created to pull the door out to fix it. This was a bad design where the door motor goes to far when turned either way......
 
#64 ·
Bad design, yes. The pivot stuff is still intact, the problem is that the door goes past what should be a positive stop in the cold position, then the poor little motor can't force it back. I can't imagine how a new door would help that; problem is that either the motor needs some kind of re-training (possibly I'm doing the calibration thing wrong?) or a better, a more positive stop.
 
#68 ·
lately, I've noticed the driver side wasn't as COLD as the pass or the rear. (heat works fine)

Ran the diagnostic and recirc button was blinking after the procedure was done. I also don't hear the pressure changing when the button is pressed which leads me to believe the actuator is bad(for recirc) this is another issue.

now how do I fix flap so I get some cold air on the driverside and the recirc to work?

mines 2002 with tri-zone manual temperature control.
 
#69 ·
I had the same problem earlier this summer. I suspected the automatic temperature control wasn't positioning the "doors" correctly, but it turned that the AC was low on R-134a. The rear was cold, the passenger side was "good" but little cooling on the drivers side. It seems that the passenger side cools from the bottom of the evaporator, but the drivers side cools from the top, and a low charge results in the top being much warmer than the bottom.
I put a gauge set on the AC, found the "high" side too low, the "low" side too high and added some R-134a which solved the problem. Well--for a while--turns out the condenser was starting to leak and eventually had to replace it!
 
#74 · (Edited)
I just did a 03 town and country with manual temp control.I removed the heater core and was able to reach up into the distribution box through the heater core opening and remove the broken blend door out through the heater core opening.I repaired the door in a fashion that now makes it 2 pieces as that was the only way to get it back in without cutting the box.I slid the repaired door back into place and then slide in the modified pivot/internal splined end that the actuator engages into_Once installed the actuator hold the removable pivot in ....so it cannot walk back out. It took some thought but it worked perfect and no cutting of the distribution box was nessesary and I am sure that door wont break again
 
#86 ·
If the blend door has been removed completely, and the rest of the system is “okay”, should you get heat?
2002 Grand SE 3.3L, manual temperature, no air in back, no dual anything.


History: Heat wasn’t working well at all, fluid was good, so I changed thermostat. No better. Was planning to then flush out the heater core next, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to do the calibration, since it’s sooo easy. Big mistake (dagnabbit !). After calibration, worse than ever, and I could just “feel” that the blend door was no longer working right. So I cut it out with my Dremel (that’s so much for the pics), and sure enough, the shaft is broken.

Before fixing/gluing/praying, I thought I’d just tape shut the hole to see what happens. Practically no heat. To me outlet of the heater core seems pretty hot, but maybe not as hot as the inlet. So now I’m thinking that my original problem was the heater core all along, and then I created the blend door problem during calibration. Wow is that actuator strong.

Even after I fix the door, I’m going to be afraid to calibrate for fear of breaking both doors (the repaired door, and the one that controls vent/heat/defrost, which looks like an even bigger nightmare). But I don't know a way around it.

Looks like the only option for the blend door is to repair or go to salvage yard (or dish out $272 for the whole assembly, just to get the door)
Any help is greatly appreciated
 
#87 ·
It looks like I answered one of my own questions. Before any type of repair, I just put the blend door back in place in what seemed like the right location for heat, taped the hole shut, and now I'm getting heat. So I guess the heater core isn't plugged.

So now my questions are more about how to survive the calibration process after I do the repair on the blend door (and like I said, I'm nervous about damaging the other vent/defrost/floor door, as it looks like the dash would come out for sure on that one).

If I remove the wire from the (defrost / vent / floor) actuator, and perform the calibration, do you think it will calibrate just the blend door without messing up the calibration on the other? Also, I saw one suggestion about using a pair of vice-grips to simulate the door, if I'm clever enough to figure out the correct stop / start locations. Has anyone ever done that?
 
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