It was 28 degrees coming home, and my feet were frozen. I have a programmable HVAC system.

I went through my factory manual and found that I am getting heated coolant through both the in and out heater hoses to the engine, and the blower works. My conclusion is the valve damper that moves to direct air to the heater core is not being activated.

First I removed the under-dash sound deadener and realized that I could not get to the top of the air box where the damper valve is. So I took the glove box liner out hoping to expose the top of the programmer and air box and it was covered with other ducting parts that seem impossible to remove.

Any thoughts on how to fix this problem?

BF

Welcome to PontiacBonneville club.

Search "air mix door actuator." That sounds like the part that has failed. There is a redneck fix for this that willwren posted wherein you manually open the air mix door allowing full heat all the time. Not the best fix, but will keep you warm for a while.

Gearhead Stan has a writeup on how to fix this. I think it is on a separate web site under something like trialsnuts.com or some such. It shows how to change the actuator without removing the dash. Not a real easy job. Here is the link: http://trialsnuts.com/ecc.pdf

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1998 3.8 Dodge Caravan 214K
2000 3.3 Dodge Caravan 175K
1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe 4-dr sedan 25K (needs some work!)

Bill, thx for the tips.

With the advanced age of the car (185k miles and still running strong), a redneck fix would be fine. Probably better than the one I was considering with my cutting torch. One of the vacuum actuators stopped working some time ago, the one that controls the defroster and dash vents (stuck on defrost). So I routed a vacuum line directly to it so when I need AC I connect that line, and heat I put it back.

I'll check it out.

BF