Hi,

I am hoping to benefit from someone elses experience with this same problem.

My '97 SSEi with electronic climate control will not make heat. It does not matter what temperature I set. The fan and duct controls work fine, the AC works fine, but the car won't make heat. Coolant level is up, both heater hoses warm. I suspected that the little electronic stepping motor on top of the programmer was not opening the heater flap at all.

After some great effort, and undoing many fasteners, I have the motor in my hand. Does anyone know how to make a test to see if the motor or controller (programmer) is ar fault?

Is there an inexpensive source for these motors other than the junkyard? Can they be repaired if bad?

Thanks for any help,

Bill B

I would think that with the ECC in a cold temp situation, if you put a test lead or amp/volt meter across the harness to the motor and then jacked the temp so it called for actuation, you should see a reading at the harness for a brief period.

Or, maybe you could take a 9v and put it across the motor and see if it turns. I would suggest a car battery, but you dont want to toast it.

Jay

Here'* some diagnostic information for a 1998;

The HVAC programmer commands the actuator to move by suppling battery voltage. The feedback supplied to the HVAC programmer is a regulated 5 volts. The feedback voltage is a function of the motor position with a high voltage of 4-5 volts indicating full cold door position. A low voltage of less than 1 volt indicates the full hot position. Operation of the air mix door actuator can be evaluated through the Scan Tool .

Conditions for Setting the DTC
The ignition is ON.

Action Taken When the DTC Sets
Only the full hot or full cold may be used by the system.

Conditions for Clearing the DTC
Using a Scan Tool
A history DTC will clear when 40 consecutive IGN cycles have occurred without a malfunction.
HVAC programmer battery voltage is interrupted.
Step
Action
Value(*)
Yes
No

1
Turn the ignition switch to the RUN position.
Set the Scan Tool in order to "HVAC TESTS"--Data Pair for Mix Door #1.
Set the temperature to full cold.
Does the Scan Tool show a commanded (COM) mix door position that matches the specified value?
100%
Go to Step 2
Go to Step 6

2
Set the temperature to full hot.

Does the Scan Tool show a commanded (COM) mix door position hat matches the specified value?
0%
Go to Step 3
Go to Step 6

3
Compare the actual (ACT value shown on the Scan Tool ), values both hot and cold with the commanded (COM).

Are the values within the specified range?
0-5%
Go to Step 6
Go to Step 4

4
Inspect the driver air mix valve for the following conditions:

Binding
Broken components
Improper adjustment
Are any of these conditions present?
--
Go to Step 5
Go to Step 6

5
Repair the condition.

Is the repair complete?
--
System OK
--

6
Replace the HVAC programmer. Refer to Programmer Replacement .

Is the repair complete?
--
System OK
--

Cheers,

I don't mean to back pedal, but was your climate control flashing at all when you started the car up?

Here'* a diagram of the wiring for the Air Door Mix Motor on a 1998;



Cheers,

Wow. Thank you all for the help and advice. What an excellent site this is! I will try to post an introduction after this one to tell a bit about myself.

Sorry for the double post. This is my first day on the site and after I first posted my question, I couldn/t find the forum it posted to!

But with a little help from foghorn, I'm finding my way around.

There was no blinking light on the electronic display head. One day it would make heat, the next day not. One thing I did notice was that the control seemed to want default to auto mode. (Maybe that'* normal operation.)

At the risk of sounding really ignorant, what sort of scan tool will I need to pull this information and to run these tests? Will the one I can rent at O'Reilly'* Auto Parts (an OBDII, I think) do the trick? Does it plug into the ALDL or someplace special for the Electronic Climate Control. And lastly, where can I buy the service manual that provides some of this information?

Thanks again,

Bill B

Just a note to close this topic. The fix is in. I have heat! The air mix actuator was bad. The symptoms are that the programmer operates the fan and the flaps to divert the air to the windshield, floor or dash OK, but you cannot control the temperature. The GM part no. for this little motor is 16141822 and GM asks $73 for it. I got a good one from a salvage yard for $25. While there I noticed that GM has been using these to open the flap in front of the heater core in both the electronic climate control and with manual systems; the only difference being that the ECC has a 5 wire connector, two of which feed back to the programmer, where the manual systems have a 3 wire connector. Once you get the new part in, you need to adjust the link by setting the temp to 90 and allowing the motor 45 sec to stabilize, then snapping the link in place with the air mix door in the maximum forward position. It was not easy at all to remove the dash to gain access to this little component, but with a lot of patience and help from you folks, especially Foghorn, we got it done. Thanks again. It is good to be warm.

Glad to hear your buns are warm again Bill. I had to replace my blower motor recently as that was only working intermitently...I know how you feel

Cheers,

We've had a few people have trouble with the air mix door actuator installation because of the difficulty in accessing it. How much of the dashboard did you have to take apart?

Well, because I didn't know any better, I probably did much more than I had to. If a fellow knew how to remove the passenger air bag, I think you could get right in to the air mix actuator.

Unfortunately for me, I did not know how to do this, and fussing around the airbag, even though I had disabled both of them, made me a little nervous. So, I removed the defroster and HUD cover to undo the top dash screws, removed the hush panels right and left and the glove box to remove the 10-mm head bolts holding the dash panel to the body right and left, dropped the steering column to a styrofoam block placed across the driver'* seat by removing the lower filler panel (4 bolts), and undid the two front bolts holding the steering column, then removed the 6 bolts securing the dash around the column. The last big bolts are behind the left side of the glove box. Then, the center console had to be disassembled to the point where the nuts and bolts holding it to the floor could be removed allowing the whole deal to be slid rearward enough to unbolt the bottom center of the dash panel from the floor mount and slide it back and up.

I removed the HUD, the CD player and the EEC head. Then I opened both front doors, pulled the dash back and pivoted it on a heavy cloth on the console so the passenger side came out and down several inches. This gave sufficient access to change the motor. There was plenty of wiring except for one two-wire connector on the back of the driver'* side of the dash to allow the dash to come back several inches with no pull on any wire. The instrument cluster was not removed. The dash is heavy and hard to move and must be handled carefully to prevent damage. The center console seat switches and the panel surrounding the shift lever had to be unfastened and raised and the trans shifted back to 2 to allow rear movement of the dash.

It took a lot of patience to undo everything without breaking, scratching, or damaging any delicate components or trim. I just took my time and quit for a while or for the day when I got frustrated. At that slow and careful pace, it took me about three days to take it apart and two to put it back together. But everything is nice and clean and tight, and I had an opportunity to realign some of the little anti-squeak pads the factory had glued on crooked in a couple of places on the dash trim pieces. ( The edge of one of these was visible above the EEC head and looked out of place.) So now everything works and the dash looks like new, well really, better than new.

If I had to do it again, I would work a little harder to find the procedure for removing the passenger air bag to see if that might work.. This way was not easy.

Hope this all helps the next guy who might have to do this job!