No heat - maybe bad blend door linkage

[dudley92]

I've seen posts on hear of people doing a similar fix--I'm just wondering what the easiest way is to get at the blend door location. If it's on the passenger side or driver side? I'm guessing it's on the passenger side since that's the side that doesn't have heat right now--but I really don't want to tear apart the wrong location.

Any one have any tips on the easiest way to get at the blend door for a '03 with driver and passenger manual heat controls? Thanks.

Dudley92

[DaveKG55]

I've seen posts on hear of people doing a similar fix--I'm just wondering what the easiest way is to get at the blend door location. If it's on the passenger side or driver side? I'm guessing it's on the passenger side since that's the side that doesn't have heat right now--but I really don't want to tear apart the wrong location.

Any one have any tips on the easiest way to get at the blend door for a '03 with driver and passenger manual heat controls? Thanks.

Dudley92

That is exactly what I did. I cut a hole in the air box and pulled out the door with the broken shaft and repaired it. The fix lasted about a week. I thought the repaired shaft was at least as strong as an undamaged door shaft but apparently I was wrong. I haven't gone back to fix it again, and actually I wonder if the calibration process is somehow flawed (faulty controller?) because it seemed possible the door was being torqued by the motor beyond it's normal stop position, thereby breaking the shaft the first time and the second time.

Here's the technique used, refer to the posts between myself and gordo.
http://forum.chryslerminivan.net/showthread.php?t=11969

[Bradnick]

Shaft, Blend Door TSB Part # 04885511AA

I've been procrastinating on repairing my 2003 DGC SE 3.3L that right now has no heat. Winter's approaching soon and it won't be fun without some nice warm air.

I've checked the coolant level, it's OK. Both input and output heater hoses at the firewall are hot so I don't think the heater core has any obstructions. I am fairly certain the blend door is stuck in a position to allow only cold A/C through. Prior to the problem initially seen last Spring, I had heat (HOT!) and over the course of 1-2 days it started getting flaky whenever I moved the manual temperature control dial. Then the heat finally quit, or more accurately I'd say it was stuck on cold.

I recently pulled some of the lower dash components off and looked at the blend motor and linkage on the driver side and the linkage end of the motor had what looked like a plastic geared wheel and there was nothing attached to the other end. I stuck my finger into a hole on the main housing(?) where the motor normally attaches and could feel the linkage that was likely once connected to that geared wheel on the motor. (Perhaps the act of pulling the motor off the housing made the blend door linkage fall off???). Of course, getting to it would take a major tear-down of the dash. There isn't anything in the Dodge Factory Service Manual to provide that level of detail so I don't really know exactly how the motor and blend door linkage come together to move the blend door. In fact, I couldn't even find the blend door.

I have not checked the actual motor itself, I'll assume it is OK for now since I *think* the linkage is the problem.

OK, long story short, has anyone pulled apart the dash and had to reattach linkage for the blend door? I'd like to get some ideas before I punt and take it to a Dodge service shop for a diagnostic estimate. Quite frankly, it doesn't look like a trivial task and may be a lot more involved than I want to take on.

My van is an SE model with a single zone heating system and there is only blend door and motor on the driver's side of the radio console.


-Dave