Blend door actuator

I have a 03 liberty and my heat has stopped working. If I switch to hot it will blow hot for a few seconds and then just blow air then if I switch it to cold it does the same thing blow hot then just air .It’s like the blend door opens then slowly closes. My questions is this the actuator? just wanna make sure before ordering the part and tearing the dash out ?

Sounds like a faulty controller to me, or a big vacuum leak somewhere. I would take the controller out and investigate there first before thinking about taking the whole dash out.

KJowner said:

Sounds like a faulty controller to me, or a big vacuum leak somewhere. I would take the controller out and investigate there first before thinking about taking the whole dash out.

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When I did pull out the controller I didn’t see anything unusual. the lines were all hooked up to it. Is there anything in particular I should look at on it to diagnose that’s the problem?

I would check to see if there is a leak on the line to the actuator and check the controller pulls and holds a vacuum on that line when heat is selected, I think you will find it isn't regulating the vacuum.

So I checked the lines to the actuator and they are holding vacuum. Each mode that I select on the controls is working fine and holding vacuum ?

Ever since I had the vehicle I had to put it on cold for the heat and then on heat for cold but now that don’t work. Not sure if this info helps any?

John_ said:

I have a 03 liberty and my heat has stopped working. If I switch to hot it will blow hot for a few seconds and then just blow air then if I switch it to cold it does the same thing blow hot then just air .It’s like the blend door opens then slowly closes. My questions is this the actuator? just wanna make sure before ordering the part and tearing the dash out ?

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I have an 07 Dodge Durango that exibited the same symptoms and the problem turned out to be a broken blend door shaft that kept the door from moving to the proper position. Unfortunately, the only way to diagnose it is to tear the dash out. Both the blend door and the actuator are not cheap. BTW, the original blend door and shaft are made of plastic and are prone to breaking. Since the replacement OEM blend door was no longer available, I replaced it with an aftermarket aluminum version.