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blend door issue??

56K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  wvhemis 
#1 ·
My wife came home today complaining that the heat on the passenger side of her 2012 Crew was cooler than it should be. I ran it outside and could hear clicking of the door but couldn't get any heat out of it, driver side is plenty hot and so is the rear. I couldn't find anything via Google so hoping that the gurus here can. Thanks in advance.

Aaron 2012 Durango Crew 3.6 AWD 70k
 
#3 ·
I wish it was under warranty, but at 74k no luck there. I called a dealer today and was quoted about 2hours labor @ 100/hr and $250 for the part. They don't sell the actuator by itself, have to get the entire diverter assembly?:mad: I might try and see how bad it is to get at it and hopefully I can figure something out.
 
#4 ·
I'm late to this party, but did you or anyone else get this fixed yet? I have a 2011 Citadel with a similar problem. The front passenger's side cannot regulate temperature, and I believe it is a blend door actuator. My dealership ballparked the repair at $1100-1300 since the dash and steering column may have to be pulled. I would like some confirmation of this, or even better some news that the actuator can be replaced without pulling the entire dash out.

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
 
#5 ·
I cruised over to the JK2 JGC forum to see if our Jeep brothers had seen this issue before, and sure enough there are several reports of blend door issues on the 2011-13 Jeep Grand Cherokee. My issue was exactly the same as one of the posts. The actuator gear had shattered, and my passenger side actuator was not able to rotate the blend door. I bought the gear from the dealership for $2, and tore into it tonight. It didn't go quite as smooth as I wanted, but in about 2 hours I once again had cold air on the passenger's side.

My actuator had rotated beyond the stop, so I had to take it apart to free the output shaft and rotate it about 90 degrees. Once I did that, everything lined up and recalibrated when I turned the system back on.

I'd much rather spend 2 hours of my time then pay the dealership $1200 to fix this one!!!

Now I'm crossing my fingers the driver's side doesn't do the same thing. I saw the pictures, and that one is far more difficult to access (but still does not require the dash to be removed).

Momma's happy now!!!
 
#7 ·
Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of my repair, but if you search around for "WK2 Blend Door Issue" you will find several write-ups with some pictures. The actuator gear part number I picked up was 68214880AA, and retails for $2. Here are the repair steps I found and followed:

RIGHT SIDE REMOVAL

1.Disconnect and isolate the negative battery cable.

2.Remove the right side instrument panel silencer by carefully prying at the two press rivets. You will also have to disconnect the lamp wire.

3.Remove the glove box, then the glove box closeout. To remove the closeout, you will have to carefully remove the trim piece that goes across the top of the glovebox. There are two lamps that you will also have to disconnect.

4.Remove the right side floor distribution duct from the HVAC air distribution housing by carefully prying it from the drop duct
. This gives you just a little more room to work.

5.Remove the two screws (1) that secure the blend door actuator to the right side of the air distribution housing, just to the left of the drop duct. There are several actuators within view, so try to find an illustration to see which one you need to replace.

6.Remove the blend door actuator from the air distribution housing. The gear will come off with the actuator, so you will want to make a record of the orientation. The gear mesh is "keyed", so you can put the gear on the housing up against the stop to see how it will need to be aligned when you reassemble it.

7.Disconnect the wire harness connector from the blend door actuator and remove the actuator from the vehicle.



RIGHT SIDE INSTALL


1.Position the actuator gear onto the HVAC housing to align the gear mesh.

2.Install the blend door actuator onto the right side of the HVAC air distribution housing. If necessary, rotate the actuator slightly to align the splines on the actuator output shaft with those on the blend door drive gear. In my case, I felt more comfortable disassembling the actuator to more easily get the output shaft to rotate for alignment.

3.Install the two screws that secure the blend door actuator to the right side of the HVAC air distribution housing.

4.Connect the wire harness connector to the blend door actuator.

5.Install the right side floor distribution duct
.

6.Re-install the glove box closeout and the glove box.

7.Install the right side instrument panel silencer.

8.Reconnect the negative battery cable.



While you are in there, you may also want to replace your cabin air filter if you haven't already. The dealer was supposed to have replaced mine last year, but it looked like it had never been touched. Now that I know where it is and where to buy a cheap replacement, I'll be doing it myself from now on.

Good luck.
 
#9 ·
Before doing this, not a hard job, but I just did mine and it wasn't the actual blend door actuator that was bad, it was the actuator GEAR, if you buy the actuator, you won't get the gear, it is sold separately. I fixed mine with gorilla glue but ordered two more from amazon in case the glue doesn't hold. Not a hard job to do, about an hour to take apart, glued overnight and 20 minutes to put back together. I have a 2012 Dodge Durango Crew.
 
#11 ·
I’m having a similar issue now and will have to order parts since I don’t have a larger parts store around. I noticed when I look up the actuator some places have options of a 2 terminal or a 3 terminal. Is there a way to know which it is before tearing into the vehicle? This is a 2011 Durango citadel with the Hemi. Thanks in advance.
 
#12 ·
Has anyone done the drivers side, the heat comes out hot on the passenger side and warm on the driver side. I replaced the passenger side this summer when the ac blew cold on the drivers and warm on the passenger but haven’t heard anything about the driver side. Or is it the passenger side gear broke again but is confusing me because it winter now????
 
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