Interior/Exterior air selection actuator replacement
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:30 am
Has anyone ever needed to do this. In my case I started up the car one day and heard a regular thumping noise from under the dash on the passenger side. After some troubleshooting as well as visual inspection it looked like the actuator that moves the flap between interior and exterior air had become faulty and kept going once the flap had closed (in the exterior position) and kept apparently slipping, the flap would jump up and the whole thing would keep repeating.
The service manual made it look like a simple repair - remove the glove compartment and replace the actuator by removing the electrical connector and two screws.
In actual fact it was a difficult repair since both screws could not be viewed head on and the top screw was recessed and out of sight. There is an air duct next to it making getting a regular ratchet in there virtually impossible. In the end I had to use a inspection mirror along with a thin profile long handled ratchet that I picked up at HF. Still extremely tricky since it was almost impossible to turn the ratchet due to obstructions. Once the top screw was partially out it was no longer possible to turn it with the ratchet due to the duct and the fact that once the crew is loose the ratcheting action stops and I could still not get a grip to turn it with my fingers. At some point the actuator came loose enough to move it out of the way. I then managed to break the actuator off and remove the screw once the actuator was no loner in the way.
With the new actuator I could see no real way to install the top screw so I simply installed it with the bottom screw only. Due to the tabs designed to anchor the actuator and prevent it from turning while the flap is being opened/closed the single screw appears to hold it in place well and things are working.
I was curious to know if anyone ever did this repair and got the top screw in and if so what were the tricks you used to do it.
The whole repair ended up taking about 4 hours. From what I read in the service manual the alternative is even more work -remove the dash, recover the refrigerant and disconnect both the hearer core and evaporator and pull the whole HVAC module out in order to gain access to the actuator. Of course during initial assembly I'm guessing the actuator would have been installed prior to installing the HVAC module into the car and charghing up the ac, filling with coolant etc.
After the repair I opened up the old actuator and found that one of the teeth on one of the gear wheels had broken off leading to the problem. The plastic parts looked quite cheaply made so not sure how long the new actuator (OE replacement) will last.
The service manual made it look like a simple repair - remove the glove compartment and replace the actuator by removing the electrical connector and two screws.
In actual fact it was a difficult repair since both screws could not be viewed head on and the top screw was recessed and out of sight. There is an air duct next to it making getting a regular ratchet in there virtually impossible. In the end I had to use a inspection mirror along with a thin profile long handled ratchet that I picked up at HF. Still extremely tricky since it was almost impossible to turn the ratchet due to obstructions. Once the top screw was partially out it was no longer possible to turn it with the ratchet due to the duct and the fact that once the crew is loose the ratcheting action stops and I could still not get a grip to turn it with my fingers. At some point the actuator came loose enough to move it out of the way. I then managed to break the actuator off and remove the screw once the actuator was no loner in the way.
With the new actuator I could see no real way to install the top screw so I simply installed it with the bottom screw only. Due to the tabs designed to anchor the actuator and prevent it from turning while the flap is being opened/closed the single screw appears to hold it in place well and things are working.
I was curious to know if anyone ever did this repair and got the top screw in and if so what were the tricks you used to do it.
The whole repair ended up taking about 4 hours. From what I read in the service manual the alternative is even more work -remove the dash, recover the refrigerant and disconnect both the hearer core and evaporator and pull the whole HVAC module out in order to gain access to the actuator. Of course during initial assembly I'm guessing the actuator would have been installed prior to installing the HVAC module into the car and charghing up the ac, filling with coolant etc.
After the repair I opened up the old actuator and found that one of the teeth on one of the gear wheels had broken off leading to the problem. The plastic parts looked quite cheaply made so not sure how long the new actuator (OE replacement) will last.