Hi everybody! Alright, mine is an '02 overland with the dual zone climate control. My AC is on the mend, (leaks) I'm also troubleshooting the heat. This time of year I'm roasting after the engine gets warm. And last winter I felt cold air coming in along the passenger side of the console. It defrosts alright. I'm trying to do what I can, right now I have the glove box out and I can see an actuator next to the center dash. I've turned the heat controls every which way but loose and it just sits there. Can it be my ailment?

 

Failed blend door actuators are very common
However failed blend doors are also very popular and are usually the cause of the actuator failure. Search youtubee for "jeep blend door repair" and start watching videos until you feel comfortable tearing your own jeep apart. Good luck

 

Your dual zone heater has a split blend door with an actuator for the driver's side and one for the passenger's side. They are electric stepper motors with sockets that slip over shafts on the blend doors. You won't see them move at all. The one on the glove box side is for the driver's side and the one on the back (that you can't see) is for the passenger's side. Usually what happens is the doors stick and the motors twist off the plastic shafts. Take the screws out of one and see if the shaft is sheared. In order to access the rear one, you have to remove the heater itself, which means removing the whole dash.

The blend doors control the temperature. That's done automatically from the control console by setting the temp. The mode switch is vacuum controlled and sends the heat to different places.

If you're roasting, you can bypass the heater by looping the hose from the thermostat back to the water pump, but you'll lose the defroster for those damp humid nights or when it rains.

 

Good info, thanks both. I'll look at viddies decide if I'm gonna brave it or not. Every little bit helps. And as far as doing the bypass, I have experience from my old ZJ.