Driver side blowing hot, where am I going wrong?

[Jeffdylanproctor]

I recently picked up a 2005 Escalade EXT (in addition to my 2004 Escalde and wife's 2011 Escalade) to use around the farm and I can't seem to get the driver side to blow cold air, and it is absolutely cookin in Tennessee right now. I was told the truck hadn't had working air for about six months. I looked and saw the tensioner was broken in the engine bay, and feeling around found the compressor to be a little stiff so I put a new compressor and tensioner on it. The passenger side was immediatly cold after putting about 27oz in the system, but the driver side was not.

I ordered a new actuator and replaced it. Driver side still hot

I did the recalibrate procedure by removing the fuse. Still hot.

I can put my finger on the actuator and feel it turn, not much but maybe 15 degrees or so, but the temp ranges from hot to blistering.

I took the actuator out and tried to turn the shaft with my fingers. It still ranges from hot to blistering. It doesn't move all that much, certainly no more than a quarter of a turn, maybe less.

Is there something broken inside my HVAC? Is the actuator not in the correct position and my fingers just not effective at turning the shaft?

I have a GM Tech II, and tried to calibrate it with that, but must not know how to use it very well, as I got nowhere with it.

Someone on here has a lot of knowledge on these actuators, and I would love some help on what I am doing wrong. Thanks much

 

[Trey Hardy]

I recently picked up a 2005 Escalade EXT (in addition to my 2004 Escalde and wife's 2011 Escalade) to use around the farm and I can't seem to get the driver side to blow cold air, and it is absolutely cookin in Tennessee right now. I was told the truck hadn't had working air for about six months. I looked and saw the tensioner was broken in the engine bay, and feeling around found the compressor to be a little stiff so I put a new compressor and tensioner on it. The passenger side was immediatly cold after putting about 27oz in the system, but the driver side was not.

I ordered a new actuator and replaced it. Driver side still hot

I did the recalibrate procedure by removing the fuse. Still hot.

I can put my finger on the actuator and feel it turn, not much but maybe 15 degrees or so, but the temp ranges from hot to blistering.

I took the actuator out and tried to turn the shaft with my fingers. It still ranges from hot to blistering. It doesn't move all that much, certainly no more than a quarter of a turn, maybe less.

Is there something broken inside my HVAC? Is the actuator not in the correct position and my fingers just not effective at turning the shaft?

I have a GM Tech II, and tried to calibrate it with that, but must not know how to use it very well, as I got nowhere with it.

Someone on here has a lot of knowledge on these actuators, and I would love some help on what I am doing wrong. Thanks much

On my 07 I have to pull the fuse and let The ac run through its calibration stuff. Sometimes it takes a couple try’s sometimes it still don’t work but will go to drive and out the blue it’ll fix itself and work until the next dead battery.
The actuator could be bad right out the box I’ve had that happen in the past too. Or possibly the duel climate controls in the dash.
That’s about the only two things that would cause that though
(dash controls and actuator)

 

[Jeffdylanproctor]

Does anyone know the best position for the actuator to be in when installing? I thought I read they needed to be opened and the position manually set, especially if they aren't AC Delco

 

[Jeffdylanproctor]

Ok, so I got up early this morning to work on it again, and I hate to sound crazy, but I am starting to be convinced something is off inside the HVAC box itself. I have three different actuators, and all move when turning the dial, all go through the recalibrate cycle, but the only two temp choices are hot and hotter.

Without the actuator installed, I can put my fingers on the shaft and move it back and forth, feeling the blend door hit on its sides. I am still only having hot and hotter come out the driver side.

Just using my fingers to move the door by twisting its shaft, I cannot find a cold setting on this.

Has anyone every opened these up? Is there a seal or something around the door that might be damaged and letting heat escape into the cold side?

 

[S33k3r]

Ok, so I got up early this morning to work on it again, and I hate to sound crazy, but I am starting to be convinced something is off inside the HVAC box itself. I have three different actuators, and all move when turning the dial, all go through the recalibrate cycle, but the only two temp choices are hot and hotter.

Without the actuator installed, I can put my fingers on the shaft and move it back and forth, feeling the blend door hit on its sides. I am still only having hot and hotter come out the driver side.

Just using my fingers to move the door by twisting its shaft, I cannot find a cold setting on this.

Has anyone every opened these up? Is there a seal or something around the door that might be damaged and letting heat escape into the cold side?

My daughter is currently having a similar issue with her Suburban. The mechanic bypassed the heat for us, so it only blows cold. I didn't ask what he did... But is it possible you have a manual, heat bypass on your system somewhere?

 

[Jeffdylanproctor]

Ok so this is gonna be a nightmare for someone in the future when they search this problem and end up on this page...but...

The actual door inside my heater box is snapped. Wow. When twisting the rod that connects to the actuator, I could hear something when going one direction, and after making a little hole to run my inspection camera in there... yeah...the actual door is broken on one side.

How it happened, I don't know, but the door appears to be shaped like a butterfly with two wings, and one of the wings broken, and barely hanging on...

Does anyone have a diagram showing the layout of the heater box? It looks like I'm gonna have to remove the dash and do something to replace the door.

How in the world this happened...crazy

 

[Jeffdylanproctor]

Alright, so yeah, your worst nightmare can happen with these. It may not be an actuator, it may be the actual blend door.

After getting the heater box out and dissasembled, the blend door was clearly snapped, with nothing but the foam strip holding the the pieces of plastic together, leaving it in no condition but to flop around while the truck relentlessly roasted you with maximum heat.

I ended up at home today sick with a fever, and I can't really tell if I've been asleep on my shop couch all day or this really has happened (I'm pretty sure it did).

I had to remove the entire dash -- which is an absolute mess, I don't know why we can't design an easily removable dash.

 

[Jeffdylanproctor]

I fashioned this plate onto the blend door and it seems to be solid, so I plan on reassembling the truck now and hopefully it will work right

 

[S33k3r]

I fashioned this plate onto the blend door and it seems to be solid, so I plan on reassembling the truck now and hopefully it will work right

Won't that make the door heavier, wearing out the actuator more quickly?

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I fashioned this plate onto the blend door and it seems to be solid, so I plan on reassembling the truck now and hopefully it will work right

That's a MacGyver fix, and if it works, BRAVO to you.