Heater blend door stuck

[TominMO]

The top switch on our heater controls is the one that sends the air to the different ports: defrost, foot, etc. On my Festy, that door no longer operates smoothly, or at all sometimes. The cable itself isn't the issue; I can see it moving down in the pass. footwell when I operate the lever. It seems the other plastic pieces that the cable is connected to don't want to move freely. Any thoughts? (Not stupid ones like suck it up, wimp.)

[kellen302]

can you get some graphite lube on the slidy bits

[TominMO]

can you get some graphite lube on the slidy bits

Got some white lithium grease in a spray can. Thought about using that, but I was wondering if the issue was the "slidy bits" or deeper inside the heater housing.

[89newb]

i feel your pain bro. my top vents ALWAYS blow cold. but my feet and defrost vents work properly. i dont have a clue lol

[eurotiva]

i feel your pain bro. my top vents ALWAYS blow cold. but my feet and defrost vents work properly. i dont have a clue lol

Heat only comes out of floor or defrost.

[Aaronbrook37]

I've tried spraying slide-y bits... I even took out the unit from the center console and refreshed and lubricated it. Didn't help much... I think it is a deeper issue. I remember that sasquatch has done a complete dash-out tear down and reassembly of his HVAC... maybe he can be of some use to this effort.

[TominMO]

^ Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. The slidy bits (we reallly have to come up with a better name for these!*) seem to be working fine; it feels deeper, like one door is stuck--specifically when going from the center vent (with the lever all the way to the left) to the next one over, the center/foot vent.

* mode selector levers?

[TominMO]

Fixed it! The problem was with the connecting rod that links the driver footwell heat door to the passenger one; it is getting hung up on my new Protege center console. I disconnected the connecting rod at the driver side so it hung loosely. Then I moved the mode selector switch back and forth, perfectly freely. So I can do one of three things:
1. make a small notch in the console on the upper rear of the passenger side, which will not normally be noticeable
2. bend the connecting rod differently so it doesn't contact the console
3. find a way (looks pretty easy) to hold the driver footwell door open permanently, with the rod disconnected. This would lessen the airflow of the defrost-only mode tho.