Hot in Louisiana without AC
 

A while back I replaced my heater core on my 94 bonneville se because it was soaking my passenger side floor. I am beginning to put it all back together now. New heater core is in place, and I found a broken vacuum line in the process. It was a purple line and when it wasn't connected I would only get air from the floor and defroster vents. The air was getting was cold. I fixed the vacuum line and now I am getting air from the front air vents but it is hot air.

Do I have a block? I have been reading a little bit on the forums and can't quite figure it out. Its hot and humid down here.

By the way, all the fans are turning, the compressor is ice cold, and I have enough freon in the system.

Thanks for any help that you can offer!

Your best bet for this is to read this entire thread AND the linked attachments. A lot of reading, but quite a bit of good information in there.

Bottom line - you likely need at least a recalibration (instructions in thread) and possibly an airmix door actuator reset. (procedure in thread).

Feel free to ask further questions though. ;)

Psst....Mike.......you forgot to link him to the thread - ;) http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ghlight=airmix

Anyways, this link is for ECC (Electronic Climate Control)...the manual control works on similar principles, but there may be differences. Also, not sure if '96-99 is the same as '94. Seein as you have an SE, do you have the ECC or the manual controls with the three knobs?

The purple line is the vacuum feed for the system to determine airflow control, but I forget if it anything to do with the air tempurature...that is usually the airmix door actuator. I suppose you could have a block, but I would still expect you to get cold air.

:oops: Uhm...Yeah...the link. :oops:

Anyway, here's the thread I was talking about. It includes the link posted above plus a bunch of other diagnostic information and a specific link to the Airmix Door Actuator issue and repair.

A/C Blows Hot All The Time

A little more reserach last night leads me to believe that cold air is not affected by the vacuum lines in the system. AC and cold air appears to be all electronically controlled, so reattaching the purple vacuum line should not have affected cold air by itself.

Right, but the door actuator IS affected by the vacuum controller, correct? He may have caused the door to shut off the flow of cold air when he plugged in the purple vac line. Especially if the actuator was miscalibrated or broken.

I'm just guessing here, based on what little I do know of how the system works. ;)

Nope...from what I can see, the air mix door is entirely electronic and controlled by the motor and arm. So, unless the vacuum lines commanding where air is directed is also tied into signaling the AC, then his problem is probably not related to the purple line....that is what has me confused, here. Unless an electrical line was knocked off at the time of reconection of the purple line, then I can't find a relationship for losing the cold air. :?

OK, so we need to have Pinion verify what exactly is happening. I read above that his compressor is working and his lines are cold, but no cold air. That gave me the impression that the A/C is working, but the airmix door is not routing it to the cabin.

Pinion, are you still there? Can you verify what exactly is happening to the best of your ability? :?:

Agreed.....I would vote for the airmix door as well, which from everything I have looked at is electronically controlled. Hopefully, just a recalibration is in order.

I see a problem...after replacing my heater core, I put back on the large plastic housing that went around the heather core. On that housing was a small plastic box (i think it controls the airmix door). On that box is a metal rod, which broke off in reinstallation. I can fix the problem by reattaching the rod, but where does the rod connect to other than the plastic housing?

BTW, I have the manual (3 knobs) controller.

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You found it!

The small plastic box is the airmix actuator, and the rod that comes off the box snaps into a small, white, round connector on the airmix door.

Attachment 64457
This pic is looking through a hole, behind the glovebox that shows the rod in place in the white connector. The trick is to line up the rod with the connector and, using a long flat-bladded screwdriver to "pop" the rod back into the connector. The white connector has a v-shaped groove on the top to help guide/line-up the rod. The rod has threads on the end that goes into the white connector and the threads need to be in line with the connector.

So, start your car and set your temperature knob to "Full Hot". Let it run for at least 45 -60 seconds. This moves the "rod" all the way to the passenger side to calibrate the system and moves the rod to line up best with the connector. The airmix door and it's white connecter should already be over as far as it can go to the passenger side.

Use the screw driver to line up the rod on top of the connector and to "spin/rotate" the white connector until you think/feel/see the rod drop into the v-groove on top. Then carefully use the screwdriver to "pop" the rod into place. If all works well and your actuator (the small black box that the other end of the rod is connected to already) is not broken, you will have heat and cold again under your control.

This process sounds worse than it is and once you look through the hole and see the connector and rod, it starts to make sense. Don't get too frustrated if it takes a few tries to pop the rod onto the connector as lining it up takes some patience and a couple of tries.

Here is a bonus pic showing the rod/actuator location on top of the large plastic housing.
Attachment 64458

Yes, that rod connects from the Actuator to the airmix door. Here's a description from one of our members when he fixed his. He found a way to reconnect it without taking everything apart.

Hopefully, your airmix actuator isn't toast also. Have you read all the linked threads posted earlier in this thread? There is a ton of info in those threads that should help you a lot.

EDIT: Too slow on the post again, lol. Really good write up Bob. TECHINFO stuff, IMO. ;)

The white plastic connector for the rod on the actuator is actually the one that is broken, but only a small piece broke off....i believe that I can fix it with some zip ties.

That rod pushes and pulls the airmix door to full cold (toward driver side) and full heat (passenger side) and all the ranges in between so make sure the rod stays in the connector and tie it well...good luck and let us know if the zip ties work.

I decided that a zip tie wouldn't work as well as a bread tie because I needed the rod to be able to turn. A zip tie would keep it too stationary and put a bind on the actuator. I double bread tied it and lay there under the dash watching the arm move and work well while I was switchng the AC controlers.

Thanks for your help guys! For a while I thought that nobody was going to lend me some information and then I checked back a few days later and ya'll were waiting on me :D

Once again, thanks! It is hot in Louisiana with this humidity. Bring on the hurricane season!

You'll have to check on the bread tie fix every once in a while, as that wire doesn't like to be flexed too many times before it breaks. However, it might last for quite a while before you have to redo it.

And sorry we didn't get to you earlier. Sometimes Echo's on siesta and I have to call in an Arizona camel to wake him up.

Glad you have air now! 8)

So....you have your cold air back? Ah.....great to hear.

I saw your original post the day you posted it, then must have had a mental lapse (yeah, I am old). Luckily the camel was sent to remind me that you had an issue we hadn't addressed, yet.

If those bread ties ever fail, and you need a new plastic connector, we will see if one of our junkyard dawgs can find one.

Rock n' roll...thanks guys! :D

One more thing.....in the manual climate control, which position is econ? I have never figured it out.

"Econ" mode, huh?

Roll the windows down and hope for the best?

I grabbed my owners manual from my '97, and don't see an "econ" mode or setting.

Max A/C uses mostly air from inside the vehicle while A/C draws in outside air. I don't have the service manuals with me, but can look for "econ" later.

Econ is = to AC or Norm. I think that's a Ford or Mopar thing.

Jeff

Couldn't find ANYTHING in the FSMs that talks about "Econ". So, other than rollling down the windows, I would just leave it on A/C like Jeff mentions above.

Bob...they replaced the Econ button in 95 with Mode.

Not sure what Econ does...we need a 92-94 FSM owner for that. We got the ability to control air instead

I recall that on some of my cars at one time and it seemed to be over the controls for the heater and vent now that I think about it. It also had AC over the AC and Max setting.

My memory fails me at this point.

Jeff

Now I remember It's been on all manual AC controls since the early 70's.

It's on my 78 El Camino

Attachment 64414

Jeff

This is what I am referring to in my 94 bonneville.....It might not have been on these threads that I heard something about econ mode....but maybe this will help....

Attachment 64331

Ok, then just place the control on the vent position or the floor position that's as close to econmy you are going to get. The compressor isn't going to kick on so expect to get air that is slightly hotter than ambient. If you heard econmy this is more than probably what it is refering to.

Jeff