Heater is blowing HOT, HOT, HOT - AC definitely not COLD, COLD, COLD....

[timsch]

The PO of the car I picked up recently mentioned that the AC was not working very well. It was after summertime, so I didn't really need to use it much, but did notice that the cooling was rather weak. Now that it's gotten cold enough for the heater, I notice that it blows much hotter than any other vehicle heater I've had. To keep it from being too hot, I take it off of recirculate and have to turn the temperature control knob mostly to the cold side, with the indicator sitting around 9-10 o'clock with the outside temperature in the 45-55F range.

If I'm mainly on the cool end of adjustment for proper heat, that has me wondering whether I'm getting heat input with the control knob turned fully to the cold side, making the AC not appear to be working right. I have it mostly apart now from working to tape up the blend doors, so would like to correct any other issue causing this before putting it back together. Turns out that the blend door fix had already been done. Is there anything else to look into while it's all open?

I haven't gotten to the AC repair yet, any more than looking at past posts here and seeing that AC charge is not something that can be evaluated with just a set of manifold gauges, so have no idea of any actual AC problems.

 

[oilhammer]

Check to make sure the temp door cable is in fact moving the temp door to both ends of its sweep. It is a pretty simple setup. Three cables, two are for the modes (defrost, dash, floor), the third is just for the temp. Recirculate is done via an electric servo way over on the passenger end of the HVAC case (and I cannot say I have ever seen one of those fail).

If someone was in there before, maybe they messed something up.

 

[timsch]

The temp door is not moving fully to the end of the sweep when the control knob is fully to the cold side. There is a 1/4-3/8" gap at that point. The door fully closes on the hot setting. When moving the control knob back toward cold, the door does not begin to move until the dot on the knob has reached the 2 o'clock position.

 

[oilhammer]

There's your problem. Cable kinked, lever at bottom of case broken, something isn't right.

 

[timsch]

I didn't find any kinked wire or wire housing. I disconnected the wire connection from the controls and was able to move the blend door the full sweep without any binding up by pushing on the wire itself. I had to push the wire further into the housing than was possible with the wire connected to the controls. If I could adjust how the wire housing is held, I could likely correct the problem, but it didn't look like I could do that at the control side. The other end I couldnt get such a good look at. Is it adjustable there?

Kinking the wire on the door end may be an option, judging by how much sticks out of the housing, but that'd be last resort.

 

[csstevej]

Yeah your pivot arm isn’t connected correctly….it’s hanging down about 1/8” in the bottom picture.
Probably has a broken lock tab….it’s common .
Possible jumped out of the slot with the flapper door…..no need to kink the wire.

 

[timsch]

Yeah your pivot arm isn’t connected correctly….it’s hanging down about 1/8” in the bottom picture.
Probably has a broken lock tab….it’s common .
Possible jumped out of the slot with the flapper door…..no need to kink the wire.

Thanks for the input. Can I bother you to save the picture and mark it up showing what you're talking about? I'm not clear on what you're referring to.

 

[csstevej]

The item circled in red there should not be a gap there.

Flap valve

• csstevej
• Nov 24, 2022
• 1

 

[timsch]

I hope to get a chance to look into it tomorrow morning. Is there a known fix to this?

 

[csstevej]

If you’re lucky it just slipped out and the tabs are ok. If not you need to replace it.
There is a member on here that makes them with a 3-D printer . I think it’s Kansas City TDI but not positive, others will correct me if wrong.

Bur either way you may have to pull it down and look up there with a mirror and flashlight and see where the tab from the flapper is and orient the lever to the same position before up put it back in to engage the flap correctly.

 

[timsch]

Here is the keyed side of the blend door control arm. I don't see anything broken or like retaining tabs. The arm was not held on by anything, but was still inserted enough to function.

I saw the hole in the arm and thought maybe a screw was missing. I found that an M3 screw threaded into the piece the arm mounted to. Here's the gap with the arm held on with the screw.

With the arm off, I wiggled the piece it mounts to and didn't detect any up/down movement. With the arm mounted with the screw, the door functioned the same - still the same gap on the COLD setting.

I hope someone else sees a problem I'm missing.

 

[csstevej]

Read this link. Also has the vendor that sells the replacement…..there should be no gap there.

blend door bushing 1h0819136 pin

1h0-819-136 video on these pins added 3-14-2019. Update 6-14-19. Hundreds of happy customers. I've installed about 10 myself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yz2p1apm_w Vw calls this a "pin", I would call this a blend door bushing. Vw discontinued this thing. Why on earth they...

forums.tdiclub.com

 

[timsch]

Much appreciated. Part ordered.

 

[timsch]

I was able to solve the problem by pushing the wire housing through the lower retaining clip ~1/4" to allow the wire to push the arm on the bushing further, closing the door fully. Since nothing but friction held the housing in place, I put a couple of glops of goop on each side of the clip to hopefully hold it in position.