Blend Door Actuator (heating and cooling)

My dealer rocks. They did it and my jeep was out of bumper to bumper warranty-but barely. My jeep had the radiator and water pump replaced in the past. I called jeep customer care and they told me to get it diagnosed by a dealer. I called my dealer (whom I had mentioned the problem to before) and told them I had talked with Jeep customer care and they made an appointment Monday 8am. Diagnosed within an hour and took it in and finished up the job today. They only charged me $100 deductible!!! Lucky I guess. Or maybe Jeep recognizes there is a problem idk.... either way it got done and I'm happy with heat.


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I just bought this part from O'Reillys after months of clicking, looks to be the same. Part number on the box is 604-029 (Air Door Actuator) if that helps anyone. Kinda messed myself up by removing the plastic arm off the post on the part and now I'm wondering where it exactly sat in the teeth.
 
I just repaired my blend door actuator. It wasn't as difficult as I originally made it out to be. It is on the driver side underneath the panel by your right knee. After removing the plastic panel and the metal panel below it. There is a black box that needs to be removed also with the plastic bracket. There are two screws associated with that. Also there is a vent pipe that is plastic that I removed also for the lower vents. Which just pulled out easily. Then it was a piece of cake to replace the actuator.

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Heater Blend door actuator

Thanks for the help with this actuator problem...I've completely taken the dash apart twice trying to get the blend door to open. Didn't realize it was on the driver's side. Got the floor vent out of the way and it exposed the actuator arms, worked them back and forth a little bit.... And we have heat again just in time for a cold snap. Thanks again Jeeple!
 
Awesome thread guys! Not sure why I hadn't found this earlier. This is the first practical thread I found with DIY options.

I've got a '12 JKUS. 1st winter... 2012 - no drivers side heat. Took it in, they had it for almost a week. Replaced radiator, heater core, etc. no questions asked.

Winter 2013... no heat again. Had it a few days... flushed/recalibrated. Heat, but not impressive heat.
Winter 2014. Same. In 3x. Same procedures. Suggested a blend door problem.
Winter 2015. Same. In 2x. Same procedures. I asked if they found sludge. 1st answer was "yes". When I asked them to find/fix the cause of the sludge "no...we didnt find anything". Same when I asked if they thought doing the same thing over-and-over was an adequate solution to the problem. Suggested again... blend door problem.

Winter 2016. 5 year anniversary! You guessed it... no heat again. And I'm at 60,500 miles. I can take it back for more of the same. Or not. And now being out-of-warranty, they're not going to dig into anything I'm sure. The last flush "repair" is warranted 2yr/24,000, so I guess I can get free annual flushes?

So I just bought a Navtool/backup camera that I'll need to dig into the dash for. Now I have 2 reasons! And if the actuator doesn't fix it, I'm not out a lot of money anyway.

I also read on an Instructables post from a guy who rebuilt his own blend doors... that pulling the battery and re-connecting, will re-calibrate the system (blend door positioning). As far as I know, this might have been what's been making the "flushes" work the last 3 yrs. Not a perm solution, but if it gets me by, I'm good til I can dig into it.
 
Jeep: 2012 JK Altitude Ed.

Issue: Heat only blowing from extreme right side of passenger dash. Every other vent was cool.

I first attempted the battery cable disconnect with cable contact together for 10 seconds for a reset. No GO. Then I disconnected battery and let sit last night to be reconnected this morning and still NO GO.

Today I purchased a $56 Actuator for the Passenger door in hopes that was the issue. Never realizing I could have just checked the existing one for malfunction by looking at the dam mechanism and seeing if it turned. (THATS WHAT I GET FOR TRYING TO DIAG THINGS AT NIGHT TIME.)

Anyway both old and new passenger side actuators are not the problem.

I venture further into the thread and read about the second actuator on the driver side behind dash by right knee panel. I got to that about an hour ago. This time I turned on the jeep to see if the arm on the actuator would operate as I switched vent dial and NOTHING. Then I thought to check if the additional passenger side actuators would work on this side. Worth the try considering it was same connection. NEGATIVE. Proceeded to install the driver side actuator onto the passenger side's connection. On that side of the dash it operates just fine.

Now for whatever reason neither actuator will operate when connected to that driver side connection. Im not the one for disassembling dash boards for hours and messing with wiring harness. At this point I feel a trip to the dealer is INEVITABLE for me.

Thank you to everyone with the awesome detailed write ups on their thread for this matter. All the images were super helpful.
 
It is awesome the amount of info that can be gleaned from reading these post! Better than porn, it's Jeep porn!
 
Bloody Stitches said:
Jeep: 2012 JK Altitude Ed.

This time I turned on the jeep to see if the arm on the actuator would operate as I switched vent dial and NOTHING. Then I thought to check if the additional passenger side actuators would work on this side. Worth the try considering it was same connection. NEGATIVE. Proceeded to install the driver side actuator onto the passenger side's connection. On that side of the dash it operates just fine.

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Not having torn into it yet... how/where do you see the arms/ actuator movement? What, if anythign needs to be disassembled? I saw earlier pix of the actuators, but the arms are internal?

(and btw... the battery disconnect did nothing for me. If anything, I think it made my passenger side colder!)

Thx!
 
2012 Rubicon 37,000 mi

ericmaynor said:
Have you had to go back and do anything else? I am having a similar with my 12 JK. I have blazing heat on Pass side but only warm on drivers side. I have removed glove box, I watched the actuator move. So i am wondering if it is not the core. I am 45000 mi, so of course no warranty.
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I'm having the same issue. full hot air on passenger's side and only warm on drivers?? Has anyone came up with what the problem might be?
 
WJCO said:
That sounds like the heater core plugging issue to me.
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Yea l agree cuz my 2010 Rubicon l used to own did the same thing.DSCN0610.jpg what's the best way to clear out the core? Back flushing I'm thinking. I've used compressed air to unplug heater cores in the past with a carful blast in the reverse direction of flow.


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I thought the shop replaced them but can't remember for sure. Flush may be worth a try. IIRC, it's only one part of the heater core that gets plugged.
 
dvitous said:
Not having torn into it yet... how/where do you see the arms/ actuator movement? What, if anythign needs to be disassembled? I saw earlier pix of the actuators, but the arms are internal?

(and btw... the battery disconnect did nothing for me. If anything, I think it made my passenger side colder!)

Thx!
Click to expand...

The passenger side actuator doesn't have an. It's gear driven spindle plugs into the center of a big white wheel behind dash.

The driver side actuator however, has a white arm/lever that functions with it. Hard to see it from under there.


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New member here, but I'm definitely watching this post. I've got a 2012 Rubicon with auto climate control and my heater has gone out. It was in the teens this morning and it is cold here. I did all of the normal things to diagnose: thermostat is opening and coolant starts to flow across the radiator at about 160 degrees. Both hoses going to the radiator core are hot and within about 2 to 3 degrees of each other, so that should eliminate any blockage in the heater core.
I get air flow at all of the outlets, floor and dash, but it is COLD! I took out the glove box to watch the actuator and it works and diverts air to whatever vent is selected, so I know that the control that switches vents and airflow is working and I can eliminate that. The problem that I am seeing is that when the temperature control in the dash is adjusted, the blend door actuator on the driver's side is not actuating the blend door and from videos that I've seen on youtube, seems to be stuck in the AC position. I am assuming that it is the blend door actuator motor that has gone bad, but I'm just wondering if it could be the temperature adjustment knob in the main climate control switch assembly.
Does anyone know how to troubleshoot that? Theoretically when you adjust the temperature to a hotter setting, the blend door should switch from cold to hot. In my case that isn't happening. I did switch off the auto selection on the fan control and vent selections knobs, but you can't do that on the temperature control. You can only adjust the temperature setting. I guess the easiest and cheapest thing to do would be to replace the electric blend door actuator motor (about $30), but how do I know it isn't the main temperature control? Any tips on troubleshooting the temperature control knob in the main controls?
 
In theory... both pipes in/out of the core could still be hot even with a blockage. If the core was totally blocked, there'd be no heat anywhere. A common conception is that part of the core where the air passes to the drivers side may be blocked?

On your temp control theory: Since it's not "dual zone" - if the control affects the passenger side temp (on mine it does) - then the control is presumably working fine. It has to be something unique to the drivers side -- which has me coming back to a malfunctioning blend door.

For 4 yrs since the replace, they've done nothing but flush. And it gets "better" - not great, for a little while. I think they also calibrate the blend doors at the same time, which may make it somewhat better. Also done sitting in a warm garage, where my jeep sits outside.

I read a post once of the "flexing actuator arms" cause the computer to mis-read door position. So even if they do recalibrate, and something "moves" - it may not necessarily be returning accurate readings. In that post, I believe the guy either made, or bought new/updated arms from somewhere? Newer version? But I assumed he had to completely dismantle the dash to get at it. There were no details.
 
Exact same thing for me on my 2014 JKUR. A lot less heat on the drivers side (luke warm) to blazing hot on the passenger side. I literally just came back from the dealer an hour ago. They recommended to start with a coolant system flush as I was due for my 70k mile service anyway. $140 later, I have slightly warmer heat on the drivers side...but still no where near the temp on the passenger side.
 
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Thanks Dvitous for your input on this. I think you're probably right when you say that the controls are working. I can divert air to all of the vents in the dash or the floor without problem, and if I press the center button to turn on the AC, the compressor comes on. The only thing I can't do is get any hot air at all from any of the vents. Both driver side and passenger side are equally cold. When the center climate control button temperature setting is adjusted to a higher temperature I should be able to see the arms on the blend door move, but they don't. Either the blend door is stuck in the AC position or the actuator motor failed in the last position that was used, the AC position. In my case everything works. The vents all flow air, they all can be selected and adjusted, the AC compressor comes on with either the AC or on defrost. In short everything works as it should except the air is always cold.
I guess there is always a small possibility that the heater core is blocked, but with only 14,500 miles it's unlikely although I did hear about some failures concerning excess casting sand from the engine blocking the heater core. I checked with the dealer and they say there was no recall for that problem, although not all problems result in a recall. I think I'm going to just replace the driver side blend door actuator motor and see if that fixes it. It's only about $30. It doesn't look like fun to replace but it sounds like a good place to start.
 
I did just find this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXvpr3j42cg

At least now I know what I'm looking for. Found another vid of a guy temping his vents. I wish I had the temps he's complaining about! It did make me realize though... on bi-level, my passenger side dash vent is maybe blowing 110-115, where the drivers side is 90-100. So maybe the core isn't getting heat? :mad:

But I'll see if I can witness that big white mechanism moving. Or better yet... stuff one of the kids up under there to look for me! :thumb:

But as the "repair" is warranted for 2yrs/24k... my dealer's usual "repair" is to flush... so maybe I go get one just for giggles. I can complain more, but all if the complaining in the past didn't work, and I'm now +60k (just barely)
 
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