Heat and A/C issues

Jory Exotic said:
It is possible to reach under the dash from below the glove box.
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Correcting this statement...as I had to do it again yesterday. You must drop the glove box. When you do, you can see the drivers side actuator lever and cable right there.
 
bateman said:
I’d spend $500 on a fan clutch before I went flexilite. They’ve done awesome in my rock crawler builds, but I wouldn’t put them on a towing diesel. Probably wouldn’t put them on a street diesel period. But, opinions vary.
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Thanks for the input. Curious to know why you wouldn’t put the flexi lite fans on even a street truck.

I like the ability to control it by a switch. I think that is vital in a regular towing application.


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WUnderwood said:
How heavy are you towing? I am going to move your thread to the 3rd gen area.
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Registered for 24,000 lbs. Probably never see that much. Most likely grossing around 14-15,000 lbs loaded regularly.

Thanks for moving. I apologize for the stupidity! Ha ha


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Had a new fan clutch put the truck, an new condenser and a recharge. Air is cold as can be.

Factor fan clutch was around $535. Was told an aftermarket fan was pretty much junk. So we went with a genuine Mopar fan clutch.


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So... About a month ago I had my truck in the shop to replace the fan clutch, condenser and the system recharged. A/C worked perfect after that. I drove the truck twice over the course of a week and a half with no issues.

In the mean time I had bought a new to me truck and hadn't driven my 03 until about a week ago. Went to turn the a/c on. No dice. So I started to do some investigating and found that the recirculation door was completely missing (not sure how that happened). So, I proceeded to pull the whole dash out and replace the recirc door. Put it all back together, door works as it should but still no a/c.

Is there something I am missing here? I can turn the knob from hot to cold and it gets noticeably hotter when I do so, so I can't believe the blend doors are broken. Maybe it has lost the refrigerant?

Thoughts?
 
Jaysz28 said:
does the compressor clutch engage when you turn on the ac?
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I do believe so. The lines going into the cab do have condensation on them and the condenser is hot to the touch. Which tells me refrigerant
Is cycling.


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RockinRam96 said:
I started to do some investigating and found that the recirculation door was completely missing (not sure how that happened).
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A PO probably removed it.

A broken recirc door is common on 3rd Gens. The simplest and cheapest "fix" was to remove the broken recirc door. This could be done quickly and easily, if I remember correctly, by removing the blower motor. Down side was you didn't have recirculate any more, but at least it wasn't stuck on recirculate. As you found out, replacing the blend door is labor intensive and expensive.
 
BigPapa said:
A PO probably removed it.

A broken recirc door is common on 3rd Gens. The simplest and cheapest "fix" was to remove the broken recirc door. This could be done quickly and easily, if I remember correctly, by removing the blower motor. Down side was you didn't have recirculate any more, but at least it wasn't stuck on recirculate. As you found out, replacing the blend door is labor intensive and expensive.
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Why would one ever remove it? Other than laziness?

It honestly wants too terrible to get the dash out. Little more effort involved if I were to completely pull the HVAC unit. Which I may have to do anyway.


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RockinRam96 said:
Why would one ever remove it? Other than laziness?
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Because when they take it to the shop to get it fixed, everyone can't pull the dash and repair it themselves as you did, they're given the option of a $500 repair to fix it or a $30 repair to remove it. When it breaks it's stuck in re-circ mode, no fresh air. That means no vents and when the heats on, everything fogs up unless you have it on defrost, which runs the A/C in order to take out the humidity. Re-circulation isn't that important to a lot of people. I very rarely use it myself.
 
Shop tells me the evaporator is bad now. The day refrigerant is leaking into the cab. Guess I’ll be pulling the dash again.

I’m also trying to sell this truck, shop told me they’d recharge it before I sold it. But I can’t consciously sell it with any known issues. Maybe I’ll just keep it after all this...


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Man that sucks. Would suck even more to buy it and that sht happen on day two lol.
 
RockinRam96 said:
Shop tells me the evaporator is bad now. The day refrigerant is leaking into the cab. Guess I’ll be pulling the dash again.

I’m also trying to sell this truck, shop told me they’d recharge it before I sold it. But I can’t consciously sell it with any known issues. Maybe I’ll just keep it after all this...


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Click to expand...

When I pulled my dash to replace the heater core, I replaced my evaporator too as preventive maintenance. Just wish I knew how fragile the doors were so I could have replaced them while it was apart.

So now I am stuck with ac always blowing on my feet...... not the worst thing in the world, unless you are on a 5 hr drive home from the racetrack with wet feet..... blah. Some duct tape cured that problem on a refueling stop....
 
Jaysz28 said:
When I pulled my dash to replace the heater core, I replaced my evaporator too as preventive maintenance. Just wish I knew how fragile the doors were so I could have replaced them while it was apart.

So now I am stuck with ac always blowing on my feet...... not the worst thing in the world, unless you are on a 5 hr drive home from the racetrack with wet feet..... blah. Some duct tape cured that problem on a refueling stop....
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I know... I was debating doing all 5 doors as well. Blend Door USA makes aluminum doors but they’re expensive. May just put plastic doors in it.

But... maybe I can can some aluminum doors. After all I have a plasma cutter and TIG welder for a reason... ?


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Next time I pull my dash, aluminum blend doors will happen. Can’t believe I didn’t perform that upgrade last time it was removed.
 
Red Sleeper said:
Next time I pull my dash, aluminum blend doors will happen. Can’t believe I didn’t perform that upgrade last time it was removed.
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I think if I had absolutely zero intentions of selling this truck I would. But if they’re not broken I’m not replacing them at this point.


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How did the shop you are trusting advice from confirm it is the evaporator that’s leaking?

Have you put a set of gauges on it to confirm the diagnoses? I just replaced my entire AC system on the 05 except the evaporator. After assembly I purged the system and pressure tested at 120psi with nitrogen. It held pressure for 24 hours, then I proceeded to vacuum and charge.

If you have a leak, you should be able to hear or find it with soapy water at 120psi of system pressure. Nitrogen is cheap. I had to source an $8 fitting to adapt from 1/8 npt to 1/2” acme on the gauges. Works great.
 
Red Sleeper said:
How did the shop you are trusting advice from confirm it is the evaporator that’s leaking?

Have you put a set of gauges on it to confirm the diagnoses? I just replaced my entire AC system on the 05 except the evaporator. After assembly I purged the system and pressure tested at 120psi with nitrogen. It held pressure for 24 hours, then I proceeded to vacuum and charge.

If you have a leak, you should be able to hear or find it with soapy water at 120psi of system pressure. Nitrogen is cheap. I had to source an $8 fitting to adapt from 1/8 npt to 1/2” acme on the gauges. Works great.
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I don’t know how they found the leak. They told me they put dye in the refrigerant and were going to check their previous work with a light. Assuming a UV light? The tech I talked to did mention some sort of detection device was picking up refrigerant in the cab. Assuming some sort of sniffer. I did notice foggy looking air come through the vents at one time.

I just have no desire to try to find the tools to check the system. Just more money that I’d be spending on getting this thing sold. I’ll change the evaporator for $120 and put it together. I didn’t completely put the dash together yet, so it shouldn’t be that bad.


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