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Originally Posted by Wastegate13
Not sure if I should have started a new thread but I'll ask this here anyway. I see the most common symptom is no heat for the blend door problems. I don't care about heat, I live in south FL and it rarely gets cold enough here to warrant it. My problem is poor AC. I have fixed the blower motor connector yet it still doesn't blow very hard and the temp sometimes fluctuates from cool to warmish. Could this be the blend doors as well? I pulled one code from the HVAC unit and it was 55 which is passenger door travel too large IIRC. I have checked the refrigerant level and it is full. Would the heater treater product help me if it ends up being the blend doors?
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The blend doors do just what the name implies, they regulate the the opening to the heater core and the AC unit. Looking at the system from the passenger seat, the doors have about 90 degrees of movement. When they are in the vertical position, the AC inlet is blocked and the heater is at full force. When they move to the horizontal position, the heater inlet is blocked and the AC takes charge. The doors can be at any position in between, mixing hot and cold air to regulate the temperature.
When the doors break off, they generally fall down to the horizontal position, blocking the heater input. However, they are not tightly forced to that position, just laying there. If they fall just right, they can be fairly effective blocking the heater inlet. However if they fall crooked, or you hit a big bump, they may only partially cover the heater inlet, and allow unwanted heat into the system. Generally, the heat function is broken and the AC operates at less than max efficiency.
Yes, the HeaterTreater will fix your problem. However, if you really don't care about having heat, you can just bypass the heater core by cutting and splicing the heater hoses under the hood such that the coolant recirculates without going through the core. You can do this for the cost of two hose clamps and a barbed connector. As long as you never need heat, you're gold.
The HeaterTreater fix does involve cutting into the heater box. The work is done behind the glove box and is totally out of sight unless you remove the glove box or crawl up under the passenger side dash. The heater box is a two piece box that fits together kind of like the lid on a tupperware bowl, i.e. it has a tongue and groove along the mating edges to allow the box to be aligned properly when you are assembling it. The cut in the box is kind of like taking a pie slice out of a tupperware bowl, cutting through the lip. When you put it back together, the bottom fits back into the tongue and groove and metal duct tape is provided to seal the cut. The fix is structurally sound and completely sealed. The way the cut is made, it would be hard to screw it up.
I agree that if you HAVE to have the dual control functionality, the "right" fix is to disassemble entire dash, evacuate the refrigerant, drain the antifreeze, completely disassemble the heater system and replace the doors. When we bought the GC, the dual control was a big selling point because my wife has some strange algorithm for comfort in the car. Depending on the angle of the sun, time of day, highway or in town, amount of shade, and general mood, there is a perfect temperature setting that only she can determine at two minute intervals. I didn't bother to tell her that now the passenger side temp control doesn't do anything. She still happily adjusts the display to perfection, even though it doesn't do anything. As long she's happy, I'm happy. (It still drives me nuts when she's driving, but my sanity is hardly worth the $1800 that my dealer wanted to fix it "right".)
If the after-market fix sounds good, great...if not, that's fine too. However, I do want to make the point that the HeaterTreater fix is effective, easy, and is a quality product that will last the life of the car.
Chris A.
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Blend Door fix here in Atlanta, GA?
