I've got an '04 Tahoe LT and the heating/cooling is driving me nuckin' futs.
I think the problem is the blend door actuators. From what research I've done over the years, this is a pretty common problem, like the dash cluster stepper motors. The hot/cold on the driver's side doesn't want to change. Started a couple years back when it went from ice cold to blazing hot while driving down the road in the middle of summer - but only on the driver's side. Can't get it to change when adjusting the climate control. Pass side works fine as intended. Sometimes, if I switch from cold to hot, it won't work, but in a few minutes or hours or days, it'll switch on its own. It's either max cold or max hot when it does it. Sometimes it will switch on its own without touching the knob. I have the dual climate control digital display.
From what research I've done, I think there are 3 blend door actuators in the dash, and since it's limited to driver's side only, it could be the main one or the driver's side secondary - I think, again. My mechanic thinks it could be the main climate control unit in the dash, but I've asked him about it a couple times and he says he isn't really into the HVAC stuff and I don't think he really wants to mess with it. He's a great guy and great mechanic and honest as the day is long, but it's just not his cup of tea.
Also, the rear isn't working either... It blows, but from what I researched, the rear blend door actuator had a problem where the actuator would overtravel and jump its stop point and get stuck. I found what was supposed to be a replacement actuator to fix this problem and swapped it out (this is the part I got), but it didn't seem to fix it. So my solution with the rear has been to pull the rear panel, set the actuator to hot or cold in the summer, then disconnect the power to it and leave it alone. Again, this leaves it at max heat or max cool and stays that way for the season.
Times like this time of year, when you want to go back and forth from hot to cold in mornings and afternoons, it's a real pain - driving in the afternoon with the windows down on the highway, it still radiates heat (in the front), but if you manage to get it to switch to cold, you freeze your arse off in the morning - today it never switched to hot and I froze all the way home.
For the summer, my mechanic rigged up a valve in the hose to the heater core to stop flow, so even if it switched the blend door to hot spontaneously, it never flowed through the heater core and it stayed cold. Yesterday before leaving for work, I opened this valve, but the blend door never switched, so I stayed cold all the way home this morning. Even when I get it to switch to hot (last winter, anyways), I could never really get the truck truly WARM, even though it was blowing relatively warm air through the vents.
A few years back, I had another mechanic (before I found this honest one) who told me it was a major pain and quoted me like $750+ to fix the front. A different mechanic the year before I paid something like $200 to fix the rear heat and then a few days later it went back to cold (this was during winter, of course), so I'm assuming he probably just reset the rear blend door like I have done, then it jumped its track (why do I want to say jumped the shark?) again, and I was back in the same boat.
<sigh>
Long story. Common problem, so I'm led to believe. I really don't want to spend $1000 or so to fix these issues, but I'll be got-danged if I want to spend another winter driving nearly 3 hours round-trip to work every day wearing a parka. I figure while I'm at it, a new blower motor and maybe heater core might help improve the flow and blow and get the whole thing working gangbusters, that is, if I can get this switching problem fixed.
So... any of you guys work on these things regularly? Obviously, Tulsa area is better for me, but I am willing to do what I need to do.
Sorry for the novella...
I think the problem is the blend door actuators. From what research I've done over the years, this is a pretty common problem, like the dash cluster stepper motors. The hot/cold on the driver's side doesn't want to change. Started a couple years back when it went from ice cold to blazing hot while driving down the road in the middle of summer - but only on the driver's side. Can't get it to change when adjusting the climate control. Pass side works fine as intended. Sometimes, if I switch from cold to hot, it won't work, but in a few minutes or hours or days, it'll switch on its own. It's either max cold or max hot when it does it. Sometimes it will switch on its own without touching the knob. I have the dual climate control digital display.
From what research I've done, I think there are 3 blend door actuators in the dash, and since it's limited to driver's side only, it could be the main one or the driver's side secondary - I think, again. My mechanic thinks it could be the main climate control unit in the dash, but I've asked him about it a couple times and he says he isn't really into the HVAC stuff and I don't think he really wants to mess with it. He's a great guy and great mechanic and honest as the day is long, but it's just not his cup of tea.
Also, the rear isn't working either... It blows, but from what I researched, the rear blend door actuator had a problem where the actuator would overtravel and jump its stop point and get stuck. I found what was supposed to be a replacement actuator to fix this problem and swapped it out (this is the part I got), but it didn't seem to fix it. So my solution with the rear has been to pull the rear panel, set the actuator to hot or cold in the summer, then disconnect the power to it and leave it alone. Again, this leaves it at max heat or max cool and stays that way for the season.
Times like this time of year, when you want to go back and forth from hot to cold in mornings and afternoons, it's a real pain - driving in the afternoon with the windows down on the highway, it still radiates heat (in the front), but if you manage to get it to switch to cold, you freeze your arse off in the morning - today it never switched to hot and I froze all the way home.
For the summer, my mechanic rigged up a valve in the hose to the heater core to stop flow, so even if it switched the blend door to hot spontaneously, it never flowed through the heater core and it stayed cold. Yesterday before leaving for work, I opened this valve, but the blend door never switched, so I stayed cold all the way home this morning. Even when I get it to switch to hot (last winter, anyways), I could never really get the truck truly WARM, even though it was blowing relatively warm air through the vents.
A few years back, I had another mechanic (before I found this honest one) who told me it was a major pain and quoted me like $750+ to fix the front. A different mechanic the year before I paid something like $200 to fix the rear heat and then a few days later it went back to cold (this was during winter, of course), so I'm assuming he probably just reset the rear blend door like I have done, then it jumped its track (why do I want to say jumped the shark?) again, and I was back in the same boat.
<sigh>
Long story. Common problem, so I'm led to believe. I really don't want to spend $1000 or so to fix these issues, but I'll be got-danged if I want to spend another winter driving nearly 3 hours round-trip to work every day wearing a parka. I figure while I'm at it, a new blower motor and maybe heater core might help improve the flow and blow and get the whole thing working gangbusters, that is, if I can get this switching problem fixed.
So... any of you guys work on these things regularly? Obviously, Tulsa area is better for me, but I am willing to do what I need to do.
Sorry for the novella...
