Major heater malfunction.

[94vette]

I'm having trouble trying to get the heat door actuator repaired. I took the car to what I thought was a good dealership, but wound up getting the shaft...again. They said they could fix it, it would be 250 bucks and I would be happy. Wrong!! They installed the first actuator and it pegged to one side. They said it may be defaulty so they would try another one and it did the same thing. There response was to replace the heater controller and that MIGHT fix the problem. I said no to an extra $500 added to the bill that there was no guarentee would fix the problem. The stupid place is making me pay for the parts because they said my car broke the actuators. Finally, my question is, does anybody know what would cause the heater door to malfuntion like this and what can I do?

 

[Magmotor]

Are you sure it's the actuator? My '89 has a self dianogistics on the a/c heater control mod. It tells you what is and what is not working..--sensors, actuators, a/c programer, etc....I'm sure your '96 has one but as to how to bring it up on your control mode, I wouldn't know. It's in your manual.
The actuator that controles the flow of either hot or cold air on my '89 is electrical. Yours seem to be all vacumn. It looks like #36 on yours controls the main door. This is controlled by a sensor also..#27. This reads the input on your control mod as to what you want, checks the temp, and adjusts the door #1 as to how much heat or a/c or even fresh air #10 to let thru.
You can run thru the self diag and it will tell you what's going on with the system. You can also pull the front bezel off and can actually see the actuators working. <on my '89 anyway>
Hope this helps a little...

btw: those actuators aren't broken, it was just doing what it was told to do. ..don't pay for em......

 

[94vette]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I've done the self diagnostic on the heat controller and I got a code 01, which is the temp door motor circuit fault. So, I think I'm on the right track. At least I hope I am. I've heard that the controller itself might fix it or even the programmer, but that's almost $350 or so worth of guessing. If you have any other info, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[elroys]

Heater Problem

I had a problem with my heater door actuatuator remaining open. After paying to replace the actuator and having the same problem, I found it was the programmer board (located above the brake pedal). There is a posting somewhere on this site with a link explaining that this is a common problem caused by cold solder joints on the circuit board in the programmer. Some of the joints looked pretty bad due to over heated resistors. I resoldered the connections myself (rather than pay the quoted $260 for replacement) and it has been fine ever since.

 

[94vette]

Cool! That gives me hope. I'll try and get under there tonite and give it a try. Thanks for the info and let you know what happens.

 

[Rabbit]

This site has some info that may relate to your problem?


http://www.batee.com/corvette/acrepair/c68pgmrboard/c68.shtml

 

[elroys]

Thanks rabbit, that was the link I was looking for. It is amazing how many problems are associated with bad electrical connections.

I forgot to mention that the bad connection had caused the original actuator to burn out. It did not shut off, so the worm gear inside stripped.

My other concern is that what caused the bad solder joint (overheated resistors) was not corrected, so may re-occur. If I have this problem again I will install higher power resistors. They are larger, so they dissipate more heat. As recommended in the link, I resoldered ALL the connections.

 

[94vette]

Hey guys. I finally pulled the programmer out and found out that there aren't the traditional resistors like in figure 4 of the link. It seems to be an updated version. I cleaned the prongs and checked for discoloration but there wasn't much else I could do. After struggling to get it out and back in, still no luck. Can anyone tell me where to find the door actuator? I want to see if the stupid dealership didn't leave it out.

 

[Magmotor]

#9 says it's the Actuator Temp Valve and is electric which might not be working at all.....might control door #1 which is the door that seperates the heater from the A/C, I think,in the previous pic.....sounds good anyway....