I have a 2003 Limited with dual zone electronic climate control.
For a couple years now, in the winter, this has been happening: The truck has been driven and is warm, blowing hot air. It is then parked until it is cold-soaked (i.e. overnight). When the truck is started, the heating system, which was running, blowing hot air when the truck was last shut off, wants to shut off because it is blowing cold air until the engine warms up. So when the truck is first started up, the heating system makes a kind of groaning noise for a second or so.
I can get it to make this noise as well if I switch it rapidly from heat to cold or back.
Click here:
Groaning sound made when temperature changed - opening and closing twice
This past summer, I noticed that my truck wasn't getting very cold when the A/C was on. My wife however, was freezing. Investigating, I discovered that changing the temperature of the heating system from low to high, the passenger side would change from blowing icy cold air to super hot air - while the driver's side would change from blowing warm air to warmer air. I can't get extreme temperatures out of the driver's side like I can out of the passenger side.
So...the question is, is this caused by a blend door actuator? A blend door? What's the most likely suspect? And how tough is it to fix?
This tutorial is for the manual heating system blend door actuator, but I'm pretty sure the dual-zone climate control will be different, as there will be two different blend doors (one for each side) - but I could be wrong about this.
My Haynes manual is less than worthless when it comes to this (no surprise there). So any help would be greatly appreciated.
Well I tore into my 2003 Limited this past weekend. I ordered two Dorman 604-207 blend door actuators from Rock Auto, which were apparently direct replacements for the actuators in my truck. The Dorman units looked almost identical, with the same shafts, electrical sockets, screw holes and dimensions.
I pulled the center console out, the dash cover under the steering wheel, radio bezel, left center dash support brace and the plastic duct supplying air to the driver's footwell. I could just make out the old actuator, held in place with three screws. I spent half an hour or so upside down with my head in the footwell getting the screws out, disconnected the wire, and removed the old actuator through the bezel opening.
At this point I tried manually moving the driver's side blend door by rotating the splined hole that the actuator shaft fits into. The blend door moved smoothly and fully from heat to cool. I confirmed this by watching it with a mirror through the dash outlets.
I maneuvered the new actuator in through the same opening, got it positioned, screwed in the bottom two screws (I decided two were enough, as the top third one was next to impossible to get started), and hooked up the wire. I then turned it on...and nothing. Whereas I could barely get the old actuator to switch between warm and cool (let alone hot and cold), this one didn't move the blend door at ALL. I ran the diagnostic on the climate control, and it showed a code B2266, "Driver side blend door failure or short". Crap. I should have tested the thing before I installed it.
I got back into the footwell and removed the Dorman actuator. I got the other actuator that I had received from RockAuto and plugged it into the wire, and tried again. Same thing: Code B2266. So then I tried plugging the original (noisy) actuator into the wire. It worked fine.
I said some bad words directed at Rock Auto and Dorman, then headed up to the local Napa, just in case they had some actuators on hand (it was Sunday). They didn't, but said they had some at a local warehouse, and could have it there for me by Monday afternoon.
I went back home, and pried open the original (noisy, bad) actuator. There was nothing obviously wrong with it - nothing broken. I packed the thing full of lithium grease, put it back together, and installed it, to see if it made any difference.
It did! The creaking noise was gone, and the actuator moved the blend door through its entire travel. I could now select between cool (not cold) and HOT air. Watching the blend door through the dash vent, I could see it was now moving through its entire travel. I reassembled the driver's side of the dash, and pulled the passenger's side apart. Looking at the passenger side actuator, it was even more inaccessible than the driver's side. I REALLY didn't want to spend hours getting that actuator out. I then had an idea.
I got a drill and drilled a small (about 2mm) hole in the side of the actuator. I then put a needle adapter on the end of my grease gun, stuck the end of the needle through the hole, and pumped a bunch of lithium grease into the actuator. I then took a soldering iron and melted the hole closed, so grease couldn't leak out. I tried operating the passenger's side control, and sure enough the creaking noise was now gone from that side as well, and the blend door worked completely.
At this point I was STILL getting warmer air from the driver's side than the passenger's side when set to cool, so I hooked up my manifold gauges to the A/C and realized the pressure (both high side and low side) was down. I added about 8 oz of coolant, and that brought the pressures back within specifications. Now the driver's side was just as cool as the passenger's side, and overall the A/C was working much better.
I put everything back together, boxed up the crappy Dorman actuators to send back to Rock Auto, and called it a day.
Hope this helps someone else who may be encountering the same problems.
