Heater/ AC Problems

[Bill S]

My A/C plays up from time to time ( I actually have replaced two heater modules so far) it randomly has cold air coming out of the two left hand vents and hot out of the two centre ones and the one on the extreme right.

To fix it I have to turn off the car and wait, it sometimes takes several goes to reset.

I was over with the mechanic this morning and he told me that the problem is not uncommon and is not the heater module, but the flap in the duct.

Apparently the flap has plastic "axles" on either end and they wear and break and the flap flops around inside the duct and hence the weird heating/ cooling. The fix is to replace the flaps, but this means the entire dash out and around 8 hours labour!

Have any of you had this problem occur/ fixed?

He said that there was also a firm in the US apparently based in Arizona making non genuine parts that made the flap with a Brass axle which was both cheaper as it was non genuine, but also would not break again being metal.

Anybody know who they are?

Bill

[bobcatrowe]

Originally Posted by Bill S

My A/C plays up from time to time ( I actually have replaced two heater modules so far) it randomly has cold air coming out of the two left hand vents and hot out of the two centre ones and the one on the extreme right.

To fix it I have to turn off the car and wait, it sometimes takes several goes to reset.

I was over with the mechanic this morning and he told me that the problem is not uncommon and is not the heater module, but the flap in the duct.

Apparently the flap has plastic "axles" on either end and they wear and break and the flap flops around inside the duct and hence the weird heating/ cooling. The fix is to replace the flaps, but this means the entire dash out and around 8 hours labour!
i think most of us have got that problem ,there is a thread on JU that shows how to fix it without ripping out the whole dash but its still a bit brutal,dont know of the bloke who makes the brass axle ones but am interested in them,have got the destructions to do the job but waiting till i move back home as i dont have a workshop where i am at the moment.my local jeep stealership quoted 10+ hours to do it and the parts genuine are only about $50
Have any of you had this problem occur/ fixed?

He said that there was also a firm in the US apparently based in Arizona making non genuine parts that made the flap with a Brass axle which was both cheaper as it was non genuine, but also would not break again being metal.

Anybody know who they are?

Bill

i think most of us have that problem,there is a thread on JU that shows how to do it without taking the whole dash out but its a bit brutal,dont know of the bloke who makes the brass axleones but am interested in them,have got the destructions to do the job but am waiting to move back home as i dont have a workshop here.local stealership quoted 10+ hours to do the job and $50+ for parts.

[Bill S]

Originally Posted by bobcatrowe

i think most of us have that problem,there is a thread on JU that shows how to do it without taking the whole dash out but its a bit brutal,dont know of the bloke who makes the brass axleones but am interested in them,have got the destructions to do the job but am waiting to move back home as i dont have a workshop here.local stealership quoted 10+ hours to do the job and $50+ for parts.

Thanks Bob,

I tried to find it, but could not as I'm hopeless at that type of thing.

Can you please post the link

Thanks

Bill

[bobcatrowe]

cant remember the link bill but if you trawl back on this forum there is a link when this subject was touched upon,the gist of it was he cut a hole in the side of the unit behind the glovebox,did the necessary fixit then siliconed the patch he cut out back in.
bit too hit and miss for me so i disregarded it,not enough much room for error for me.

[Harky]

Originally Posted by bobcatrowe

cant remember the link bill but if you trawl back on this forum there is a link when this subject was touched upon,the gist of it was he cut a hole in the side of the unit behind the glovebox,did the necessary fixit then siliconed the patch he cut out back in.
bit too hit and miss for me so i disregarded it,not enough much room for error for me.

Hi Bob,

After a lot research and fault finding I decided to give the cut and shut method a shot. Because it works and the info to do it is a bit scarce I am putting a bit of detail on here to help anyone else who does want to pull their dash out.

If you do use this method you do so at your own risk.

My problem was that the drivers side vents had no heat (2001 Limited ) OK by me but my lovely wife was going to nag like hell this coming winter (the following arguments would have heated us up anyway)- using the fault codes on the climate control it showed that sure enough the drivers side door was over travelling.

A couple of good links to use are
1) http://www.wjjeeps.com/climate.htm
- has how to self diagnose and run the recalibrate cycle
2) http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forums...lend+door+dash
- has a good description of how to do the cut and shut.

I got a price on the parts and it was still going to be a few hundred bucks. Finally antied up for the parts and gave it a crack after some careful analysis.

There is several pics attached to show the mods needed.

1: Make sure you know what blend door is broken as the passenger one is more difficult to access (mine is still ok For now so left it alone)
2: Buy the blend door assembly and understand how it all works - you need to unclip the actuators to disassemble the doors 2 pairs of hands will help with this.
3: Take the glove box out - WJJeeps.com has a how to on this.
4: Drill/cut a small hole in the aircon duct and run the recalibrate cycle to watch the doors move or not move
5: use a dremel grinder or hack saw blade to carefully cut a shape like in the pics and make sure not to hit the heater core which is to left of the hole in my pics
6: remove the blend door actuator and broken blend door
Funny that the blend door housing has stop tabs for the actuator but the actuator didn't have a matching one - jeep could have saved a bucket load of warranty claims if they designed that in from the start.
7: install the new blend door and actuator - heaps easier than I thought unless I fluked it
8: install the motor and run the recalibrate program - the door should rotate now.
9: I ran the climate control temps up an down a couple times to make sure it was working
10: cut out a template and then cut a sheet of 3mm alloy to match - added the adhesive backed foam and screwed it in place making sure to keep the screws out of the blend doors path.

All up I did it around 2 hours and I was taking a lot of time to make sure I didn't stuff anything up.

Anyway have a look at the pics and have a go if you think you are up to it, I have worked a fair bit of mechanical stuff and a bit of a do it myself guy but not a mechanic by any means.

More pics in the next post


Ps too buggered to proof read this post so excuse any spelling or gramma

Harky

[Harky]

Now I just need to work out what to spend the $1000 I saved on?

More pics attached of the final finished mod.

Harky

[MRGC]

Well done and thanx for sharing that with us, I think I dont have the problem yet.
The only I noticed was a couple times Ill turn on the aircon and no air came out of the vents but turnf off and on and It will work, its been a while now.
Has anyone had this problem or is it related to this blend door problem.