Damm Dodge Diverter door!

[FlatTwin]

Well all, still fussing with my heating/AC system. I swear that if it was not for the Cummins engine I would sell this truck immediately due to the "time after time after time" hassles we have been having with the climate control.Back in June or so I took it to a good shop here in town and they pulled the dash and installed a new diverter door coupling. Seems that the coupling had broken and the motor could not move the door. It worked for a few days then stopped but luckily for me it stuck in the cold position so the A/C worked fine and in Arizona in the summer thats important. Finally this fall I took the truck back to have them fix it right.Well kids, the truck has been in the shop 3 times now and it still is not IMHO working right. Second time they found something else wrong and third time they found the diverter door moving but "sticking in the frame" so they shimmed it to work.Now I am able to turn the heater control from cold to hot and the door does move changing the temp but its not right. In my feeble mind when you take it from cold to the 1/3rd position you should get air warmer than full cold. Take it to the 1/2 position and it should be halfway warm. 3/4rds position and it should be pretty warm but not full hot. This is not what happens as it is right now. Now you take it to the 1/2 position and you get either full cold or full hot. Turn it one notch left (cold) and you get full cold, or turn it one click hot and you get full hot. The door is still moving but there is no moderation, its either full hot or cold. They tell me that if the last "shimming" operation did not fix it that we have to replace the diverter door assy AND the housing that its in. That the housing where it mounts is getting old and the door is not moving correctly. Anyone else have this happen? Now to make it worse they say that this part may be NLA, no longer available from Dodge so that they cannot fix it. They will not use anything but dealer sold parts and they say that a 2002 is not supported by Dodge any longer. They are doing all this work for free once I paid for the first repair, so this is why they keep getting it back but am tired of the 20 mile drive each way and hassle with the truck.Would sure appreciate any tips or ideas? Thx,Joe

[Mopar1973Man]

Thing is there might be a problem with the diverter door as said. Maybe a piece of foam is hung up. If you remove the stepper motor you should be able to grab the diverter door and twist it back and forth. Problem is you need to re-calibrate it for position.

[FlatTwin]

Mike,Thanks for the quick reply. So you are thinking that they did not calibrate the door when they worked with it last time? How much trouble it this? Thx,Joe

[Mopar1973Man]

Never done it before... But actually I think there is something in the path of the door hanging it up. The door can be seen in this pic between the heat core and the A/C Evaporator...

[flagmanruss]

Is this the door in the passengers foot well? It can be removed without pulling the dash... I have done it myself. The blend door motor can be put in reversed in the case... the dang thing is not marked & is physically reversable... but just won't work right. If removed, the gears must be set to center then reinstalled. The unit will relearn the limits.

http://www.heatertreater.net/ sells a replacement coupling & instructions.

To drop the actuator, the rug must be pulled back & the rubber padding MUST be cut out. It's no where you'll ever put your feet, so don't sweat it. Then the screws must be removed with a right angle screw driver. It's a PITA but it takes a half hour.

I'll walk you through it if we're talking about the same issue.

--- Update to the previous post...

Once the blend door control module has been removed... inspect the coupler for cracks. The heater treater .NET I had listed sells a simple SS coupler but more importantly the directions to re-orient the sensors. When the coupler breaks, the unit goes out of limit & must be reset. Open the gear case carefully as the actual motor can just fall out on the ground. Put a mark on the motor, as it can fit in the case either way!..As I recall (my copy of the instructions are out in the cold truck), you clean the grease off the bottom gear & find a mold mark on the rim. Set the gears so it is right at the edge of the gear over it. Reassemble. Reinstall. With a few heater cycles, the controler learns the new settings & it the motor is in right, the blend door works. If the motor is in wrong, remove the assembly, open it up again... rotate the motor 180 degrees, reset the gears to center & try again. By now you'll be getting good at installing the cussed screws behind the unit.

[FlatTwin]

Mike and Russ,Thanks for the info.I have no idea if the door is accessable from the RH footwell. The shop says that they have to take the whole dash off and if thats what they do they can have fun.They replace the coupling to the motor last summer then now are working with the door. Will give them a ring and see if they did calibrate the unit or not. Otherwise its coming apart again. Are parts like an entire diverter door still available? The shop is acting like Dodge is not supplying parts for all the trucks this old and they refuse to use any aftermarket parts.Joe

[Mopar1973Man]

I know its a short video but this is what the blend door motor does...

[flagmanruss]

Your 2002 is pretty damn close to my 01.5. I assure you it can be reached from the passenger's footwell right against the hump. It may be a little bit of a PITA but FAR better than pulling the dash. Being as I have a disability & only full use of one hand... I've done it a couple of times, since I did it wrong the first time. Here's the Heater Treater guy on you tube:

[mr.mindless]

And just to clarify this fix is for the temperature not for vent selection? It feels like I might e reading about two things here. I ask since my temperature selection has always had a tight range of adjustment as described by the OP, and yesterday it stuck itself at full hot.

[FlatTwin]

Mike,This fix is for several things. If your temp is stuck at hot, then am guessing that your diverter door is stuck, or the coupling that comes from the drive motor has broken and its not moving. Now if your temp control had a very small range of motion like mine does it may also be the switch, control or diverter door sticking. This is the worst cobbled up system I have ever seen and really want to get it working right one time then I am thinking of putting a valve on the heater hose to turn it off in summer or when heat is not needed and end this game the Dodge engineers are playing with us.Joe

[mr.mindless]

Jeep Cherokees have water control valves. If my temp control is really shot, I'll probably lock the door full open and plumb one of those in under the hood for a better fix...

[Kawgomoo]

had a phantom problem like this on my dads cherokee. turned out the stupid cell phone installers had hit a duct with self tapper and the diverter door was jammed against teh tip of the screw that had penetrated.3 years with no heat in virginia..brand new truck. dealer had tried everything. pulled that one screw out and poof....no more issues.

[FlatTwin]

Well we are going back into the shop today. Have put up with the system the way it is for long enough. I paid them almost a year ago to fix this and this is the 4th time that they are going to take the dash off and go back inside again. Its still doing the same thing. Turn the temp to full cold and its full cold. Turn the temp knob to 1/2 cold and its still full tilt cold. Turn it to the halfway point on the scale and its either full cold or full hot. When you turn it to the halfway point then vary it one click to the right or left it goes full hot or full cold.My feeling is that the diverter door is working and that the temp control is either out or needs calibrating. The guy I talk with at the shop, the front desk manager, it very nice but does not seem to know much about the system, telling me that he is not sure that it can be calibrated. If I had not paid them to do this a long time ago would dive into it myself but its their job to fix right so letting them go at it.Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[flagmanruss]

Outside of doing it yourself, I have no suggestions. When my dash was pulled to replace the AC, things never went together right which PISSES me off every time I get in the truck... which is one reason I don't go there anymore.As the Heater Treater guy said, you can test the little electric motor with clip leads. Orientate the gear train as I described. Reinstall. The hard part is (after carving a hunk out of the rubber under the carpet) getting the right ofset screw driver to turn the screws. There are only 4 holding it in. Very frequently, the plastic coupler fails. It's simple enough to make a solid one... the only magic in the heater treater guy is he knows how to get the cussed thing out.

[FlatTwin]

Well, they think that the motor is the issue as the control is sending what they feel is the correct signal voltage down to the motor.They are changing that and if it works then I pay for the parts. Other than that they have replaced pretty much everything already.BTW, I talked them into putting a new coupling in the puppy. its a year old and fails often, so for the price lets do it right. Will report back and see what happens.

[Calltrex]

I've changed all 4 doors that I got from heater treaterAll steel doors and hinges. Won't have to worry about any of those again

[dually]

Thanks you guys, i have to pull my dash to replace everything. ac/h-core. It looks like i should fix the doors as well.

[flagmanruss]

If the dash is coming out, by all means fix this as well. I was not real impressed with the SS coupler from heater treater... just a sleeve with set screw or 2 as I recall... but the OEM plastic part is a bad joke. I had a plastic water system handle that broke in my camper... I turned a metal collar on the lathe, pressed it on & saved myself reemgineering to replace an obsolete part. My thought is that this could be done on the OEM coupling.