After replacing the blend door actuators (a couple times), the clicking continued....
Initially, last winter the clicking started under my dash when I changed the mode on my heater. Just getting down and following the location of the clicking noise, I realized it was coming from behind the glove box. Onto the internet I went to search for answers based on the experiences of others. What a bunch of worthless info!
First off, there are three of these actuators under the dash. One on the drivers side to the right of the drivers right calf for the driver's side heat (diver-side blend door actuator). One to the left behind the glove box for the passenger side heat (passenger-side blend door actuator). One to the right on the side of the mechanism that switches between fresh air mode and recirculation mode (recirculation actuator). The ones that were making noise were the passenger-side blend door actuator and the recirculation actuator. It was obvious by the clicking, but, if needed, you can touch them and feel the vibration from the mechanism making the noises.
To access the passenger-side actuators, the glove box can be flipped down out of the way or removed. The glove box flips down easily by opening the glove box, pressing down on the top portion hard enough that the tabs holding it in place clear the edge it connects with, and it will hang freely straight down toward the floor out of the way. The glove box can be removed by removing the hinge pins. I did that the first time and didn't find the hassle of messing with the hinge pins worth it.
Shopping for the actuators, I found that they are the same actuator on all three locations and went for the cheaper option and bought them from Puengsi on Amazon. The first time I replaced them, there were no issues for a while, but, after a few months, the clicking started again and the passenger side was blowing much cooler air. I researched online and saw a few places talking about how the actuators needed to be calibrated after installation. I tried different button and pedal and key turning combinations .... nothing. I removed the negative cable and pulled fuses for a certain amount of time for the circuits to clear ... nothing. I drug my feet for a while, but, recently ordered another pair of them from Puengsi. This time, the clicking resumed immediately after replacement. I went back through the recalibration options that I found online and looked for more experiences elsewhere. This time I saw a video talking about recalibrating the actuators by using a diagnostics/scan tool after someone mentioned it on another forum post somewhere. I purchased a scan tool that had the bi-directional options and found that it had no options concerning the HVAC or climate controls whatsoever. Pissed, I sat there in the car looking up more options on the phone after flipping through all of the options on the scan tool, and found another blend door actuator calibration experience. This time, a few people chimed in talking about how these can NOT be calibrated and that it came down the actuator itself and where it was purchased from. After reading that, I took the expensive scan tool back and swung by O'Reilly's on the way back home and bought two blend door actuators for almost 5 times the amount that I paid for the others. I installed the two actuators in about 15 minutes. After connecting the negative cable, I was ready to hear the familiar clicking noise but heard nothing! I got in, started it up, and played with all of the climate controls and it was heating up nicely on both sides and made no noise at all. No calibration required.
After months of dicking around with it unsuccessfully, it ultimately came down to the fact that you get what you pay for.
Initially, last winter the clicking started under my dash when I changed the mode on my heater. Just getting down and following the location of the clicking noise, I realized it was coming from behind the glove box. Onto the internet I went to search for answers based on the experiences of others. What a bunch of worthless info!
First off, there are three of these actuators under the dash. One on the drivers side to the right of the drivers right calf for the driver's side heat (diver-side blend door actuator). One to the left behind the glove box for the passenger side heat (passenger-side blend door actuator). One to the right on the side of the mechanism that switches between fresh air mode and recirculation mode (recirculation actuator). The ones that were making noise were the passenger-side blend door actuator and the recirculation actuator. It was obvious by the clicking, but, if needed, you can touch them and feel the vibration from the mechanism making the noises.
To access the passenger-side actuators, the glove box can be flipped down out of the way or removed. The glove box flips down easily by opening the glove box, pressing down on the top portion hard enough that the tabs holding it in place clear the edge it connects with, and it will hang freely straight down toward the floor out of the way. The glove box can be removed by removing the hinge pins. I did that the first time and didn't find the hassle of messing with the hinge pins worth it.
Shopping for the actuators, I found that they are the same actuator on all three locations and went for the cheaper option and bought them from Puengsi on Amazon. The first time I replaced them, there were no issues for a while, but, after a few months, the clicking started again and the passenger side was blowing much cooler air. I researched online and saw a few places talking about how the actuators needed to be calibrated after installation. I tried different button and pedal and key turning combinations .... nothing. I removed the negative cable and pulled fuses for a certain amount of time for the circuits to clear ... nothing. I drug my feet for a while, but, recently ordered another pair of them from Puengsi. This time, the clicking resumed immediately after replacement. I went back through the recalibration options that I found online and looked for more experiences elsewhere. This time I saw a video talking about recalibrating the actuators by using a diagnostics/scan tool after someone mentioned it on another forum post somewhere. I purchased a scan tool that had the bi-directional options and found that it had no options concerning the HVAC or climate controls whatsoever. Pissed, I sat there in the car looking up more options on the phone after flipping through all of the options on the scan tool, and found another blend door actuator calibration experience. This time, a few people chimed in talking about how these can NOT be calibrated and that it came down the actuator itself and where it was purchased from. After reading that, I took the expensive scan tool back and swung by O'Reilly's on the way back home and bought two blend door actuators for almost 5 times the amount that I paid for the others. I installed the two actuators in about 15 minutes. After connecting the negative cable, I was ready to hear the familiar clicking noise but heard nothing! I got in, started it up, and played with all of the climate controls and it was heating up nicely on both sides and made no noise at all. No calibration required.
After months of dicking around with it unsuccessfully, it ultimately came down to the fact that you get what you pay for.
