AC turns warm and cold

[nonickatall]

Hello, I have sometimes a problem with my air conditioning.

When I drive, sometimes very warm air comes in, then the air conditioning turns down again and cold air comes in again. This only happens every now and then, but if I drive more than 100 miles it sometimes happens 2-3 times. Sometimes it's just a short 5 seconds, but lately it's been taking longer and longer.

I maintain my air conditioning system myself, it is charged correctly and normally works without any problems at the front and back.

When this happens, the warm air only comes out of the outlets on the left side, cold air continues to come out on the right, so I think it has something to do with the actuators.

Is it possible that an actuator is temporarily without power and then simply closes with spring force and therefore warm air comes in? Does anyone know anything about these actuators and know which one is responsible for temperature adjustment for the driver?

 

[nonickatall]

I found out that the actuator is that one on the passenger side below the glove box. And I found out that you can do a reset on the system, to recalibrate the actuators. I did that. First after that, only warm air came on the driver side. I did a reset again, and now it seems to work like it should.

No, I will watch, if this "warm and cold" issue come again, and then I will probably swap the actuator.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

@swathdiver can give you some additional insight into the actuators and their signs of failure and for troubleshooting.

 

[nonickatall]

I drove today. It works, but when I turn the heater to max there isn't much warm air coming from the driver's side. Maybe the actuator has a limited range...

There really should be hot air coming to Max, right?

 

[swathdiver]

I drove today. It works, but when I turn the heater to max there isn't much warm air coming from the driver's side. Maybe the actuator has a limited range...

There really should be hot air coming to Max, right?

Unless you replace all the actuators Nick, it's really hard to diagnose this properly without a bi-directional scan tool.

I do believe that your driver's side temperature control actuator needs replacing and this one is on the bottom of the passenger footwell, easy to replace.