Hey all. So, I just replaced my blend door actuator, the one behind the passenger side speaker.

While it is a beeyartch to do this, I got it installed and everything put back together.

Before, there was an annoying clicking sound, but now that is gone, but instead, when I start the jeep, the defrost light flashes for about 30 seconds and the blend door makes kind of a creaky noise. See attached video.

So, do you think I just have to have it calibrated? I am trying to figure out how to do this myself.

Or do you think it is DOA? It is the Dorman brand and as I understand it, they can have issues from the start.


Thanks for any help!
Craig

 

Hey, How did this turn out? I am in the process of trying to replace the actuator with a Dorman. Any hints on accessing it? Did you remove the dash?

 

The Dorman door was shite. So, I had to buy a Mopar one and do the replacement again. It was the blend door actuator that is on the right side of the glove box. The screws that need to be removed to get there are pretty straightforward, from memory:
1. Pull off the glovebox.
2. Two screws that screw in the glovebox that are phillips.
3. Pull off the plastic side panel by the speaker. Just put a screw driver in there and carefully pry it off.
4. There are a couple of gold screws you will see there to remove.
5. There is a little black screw that goes up into the plastic trim right by where the door removal wiring harness is.
6. There is a bolt that screws up from the bottom into a metal thing that holds in the speaker. This one confused me when I put it back together, so just remember it goes up from the bottom and not down.

Then the blend door actuator is a bit hard to reach, but you can see it. There is another one right there on the left side of the glove box area, but that isn't the one that was broken for me. If it is for you, you are lucky as that one is easy.

When you pull the glove box off, you will see the white blend door right in front of you and so the actuator is to the right of it in between the blend door and the side of the jeep. There is a screw close to you near the top that is phillips/nut and then another one that is in the back. I had to get a little mini-ratchet/thumb ratchet with either a phillips head or a little (I think 7mm?) socket and just keep working on it until I could get those screws out. Once you do that, it is easy to take out and replace. Then repeat.

It is doable. Just takes time to get those screws out.

But yeah, I would probably skip the dorman.

- Craig

 

Just for some terminology corrections, the control on the right side is not the blend door. That is your vent control. The blend door actuator is on the driver's side underneath the dash and is even harder to replace.

So just for making things easier to understand, on your HVAC controls when you adjust the different vent blower modes to where the air is blowing out from, that is controlling the vent controller stuff you guys are talking about.

When you adjust your temperature dial between hot and cold settings, that is the blend door actuator control and is controlling the blend door under the dash on the driver's side. It controls a door flap on the driver's side which mixes the hot and cold air together.

 

Thanks for the help. I could not get the Dorman to work and ended up using the Mopar part which worked first time and three days later all seems good. Interestingly, the new Mopar part had no lube so added some. For those who haven't had the pleasure, the 7mm bolt in the photo lower left can be seen through the speaker grill after the speaker is removed. I found a short ratchet worked well. I could not see the rear bolt (photo upper right) but was able to get the stubby ratchet driver in the photo below from O'Reilly that worked well - thanks to a youtuber.

I took the fan below the filter out thinking it might give me more room but it did not. The fan had all kinds of dirt and crud on it so cleaned it. I bought the jeep used and don't think the previous owner ever replaced the cabin air filter so dirt made its way down to the fan.

I always like to get a quote before doing this stuff and two Jeep dealers quoted me between $1800 and $2000...

Thanks again for the help

 

Had the same issue with changing all three of my actuators. Had originally ordered Dormans from Rock Auto and all three errors with travel to far when tested. I refused to pay Mopar cost for them and had suffered until I found on AliExpress a part that looked exactly like the original. They were relatively nothing in cost I payed I think 13 bucks Per. Putting info here if it can help others.

New part in middle

 

Did the Dorman one this spring and it would not calibrate and kept getting a error. Installed the. Mopar one and once calibrated it works great. I guess sometimes you have to buy OEM LOL