AC/Actuator Door Class Action

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

Honestly I’ve never heard my doors cycle. Not saying they don’t I’ve just never heard it. In my Jeep Wj you can hear it every time you start it and every time you cut it off so I guess I’m probably comparing it to that in my head.

[0stones0]

Originally Posted by mikeman

Yeah, if the door cycles everytime you start the car, then all of this before the blue dot technique stuff will not work. That's probably the real culprit. If the door cycles every time you start the car, that's where the real damage comes from. It's just too much wear on a cheaply designed badly engineered part.

They should have reinforced the areas prone to rotational stress on the blend door with metal.

Agreed. I’m doing the 2 clicks before blue dot method, just the same. At least that way, it doesn’t hold pressure on the door hinge. Maybe it helps, maybe not. Can’t hurt.

['10CamaroDude]

Originally Posted by Aqua Blue RS/SS

Honestly I’ve never heard my doors cycle. Not saying they don’t I’ve just never heard it. In my Jeep Wj you can hear it every time you start it and every time you cut it off so I guess I’m probably comparing it to that in my head.

My Mustang does, and I have a bad actuator, so it knocks every time I
start it. I have another actuator to install, just have not gotten around
to it.

[CHRISCAM]

Originally Posted by '10CamaroDude

You will be fine if you do not go all the way to the blue dot.



You can physically put a hard stop in under the dial so you can't turn it
that far back COLD.

Using the pic. of the pre-'13 models shows something that I've noticed when adjusting the HVAC knobs on my '13 that has the My Link system (has a visual graphic of the action that you're doing with the control knobs).

The graphic shows that there are many more stops in the full travel of the knobs than are shown on the marks printed on the actual control bezel. For example, on the fan speed knob there are only 3 speed marks, but the visual graphic on the screen shows several more, and you can also feel the intermediate 'notches' if you go slowly.

So-- basically, this means that what you THINK you're doing with the HVAC controls doesn't actually match up with what is happening in a mechanical sense in the actual response of the control.

Also, regarding the blend door's plastic construction-- I agree with the other opinions that if it had been made of aluminum or other metal it probably would have been too heavy for the the actuator motor to turn. However, with the plastic type that they ended up using, it really should have had an embedded reinforcement stem and tabs made of metal (think: the hinges on your household doors). A stem running down the pivot axis, with "wing"-type tabs every couple of inches along the length of the door would likely have been enough to reinforce the door against breakage. I'm not an engineer and I could figure that out.

I AM in Sales though, and from a Sales standpoint it makes sense to engineer something so that it breaks and needs to be replaced once in a while.

... It's just a shame that in this case, the repair is a difficult, often expensive undertaking for the average Gen 5 Camaro owner to deal with.

['10CamaroDude]

The aftermarket digital bezels, for aftermarket radios are the same deal. They
don't have printed hash marks on the plastic. You'd simply have to remove the
two actuator screws, and do the test. Progress till you see the motor start to
twist, back off, then look on the screen where the indicator is and remember
it...

The door could have been made out of aluminum. That plastic door isn't as light
as you might think. A properly made metal one would have worked. It's not that
the metal one would be too heavy, it would probably break the motor every once
in a while, rather than the plastic stem on the plastic door.

Or, they could have used a metal stem, and spline it all the way down the length of
the door. Either metal inside the plastic all the way, or attached the door to the
metal spline. It would take a long time for the metal spline to twist all the way down
to the other side. Both detach from the door, or rotate inside the plastic. The way
it is now, is you're paying $800 for a shop to do it, because the dash has to come out
to do it right. Else, you're cutting that section out with a tool, which is not so bad
by comparison. There is a bolt on the dash they hits the window before it will come
out, so some even have to remove the window to pull the dash off, because you're
not getting that bolt out otherwise; unless you cut it, then twist the shaft the rest
of the way out, and forgo that bolt on reassembly.

Bad design, no modular way to replace it, so bad all the way around.

[Aqua Blue RS/SS]

I think what I’m gonna do is CNC a door and the shaft out of aluminum. I was thinking about leaving the center of the door open so it could be covered with a piece of plastic held in place with epoxy in order to save some weight. The sealing surface on the door would be aluminum. I’ll probably just buy a new door and use that to experiment on if or when this happens to mine. Maybe that’s just one more reason to be the heater only Z/28 I’ve been looking for!

[mikeman]

The material the blend door is made from looks to be some type of glass fiber resin reinforced plastic which seems very brittle when it breaks off from the pics I've seen. If they used a type of plastic that was more bendable, like flexible ABS perhaps, it probably would last a lot longer.

Of course, they could've designed it with two actuators on each side taking up the side loads. However, that probably would have been vetoed by the bean counters at GM as being too expensive for just a Camaro. lol!

['10CamaroDude]

I was also thinking, if the shaft was metal, it would twist with every turn into blue
and max. Since the metal would twist, but not break, it would end up working fine.
Since the metal twisted, stays twisted, thus there would be no more pressure. Like, it
self adjusted after so many times twisting.

[mikeman]

Can you unplug the actuator so it doesn't work at all? There by saving the wear and tear of it constantly cycling when you start the car? If I need outside air, I can just crack the windows open a little.

[0stones0]

Originally Posted by mikeman

Can you unplug the actuator so it doesn't work at all? There by saving the wear and tear of it constantly cycling when you start the car? If I need outside air, I can just crack the windows open a little.

I’m guessing if you don’t have climate control, maybe. Otherwise, with CC, it would probably bring up some kind of error.

[ariZona28]

Originally Posted by mikeman

Can you unplug the actuator so it doesn't work at all? There by saving the wear and tear of it constantly cycling when you start the car? If I need outside air, I can just crack the windows open a little.

Check out "Heater blend door hack" currently on page 2. On the last two pages of that post I outline what I did to unplug the actuator on my 2LS. No faults or codes noted at this time. I don't have climate control so that adds a new variable that I was unaware of but it is still worth a try.

[mikeman]

Originally Posted by ariZona28

Check out "Heater blend door hack" currently on page 2. On the last two pages of that post I outline what I did to unplug the actuator on my 2LS. No faults or codes noted at this time. I don't have climate control so that adds a new variable that I was unaware of but it is still worth a try.

Thanks. I think I'll do this today because I don't want to rip apart my dash to replace the stupid blend door. Also, I never have the heater on anyway, just the outside air vent or the A/C in the hottest months.

When you say you select the first hash mark and then you disconnect, the pic shows the knob not quite at the hash mark. It looks like it's halfway to the first hash mark.

Is this where I should set the knob when I disconnect the actuator? Halfway to the first hashmark?

[0stones0]

So, did a little testing this afternoon. Open door, get in car, no actuator noise. Turn key to on, actuator moves to setting on dial. In my case, right in the middle between cold and warm. While key is still on, move dial and actuator operates to setting I put it at. If I turn the key to 2 clicks from cold, actuator sounds normal. If I go past that mark, towards cold, I can hear the actuator labor. This was all without starting the car.

[RankSS]

Originally Posted by 0stones0

So, did a little testing this afternoon. Open door, get in car, no actuator noise. Turn key to on, actuator moves to setting on dial. In my case, right in the middle between cold and warm. While key is still on, move dial and actuator operates to setting I put it at. If I turn the key to 2 clicks from cold, actuator sounds normal. If I go past that mark, towards cold, I can hear the actuator labor. This was all without starting the car.

Now that's a useful post. Thank you.