I was driving in to work this morning and I had the front defroster on for a little bit, once the window defrosted I switched the **** over to floor only heat, after a few seconds I heard what sounded like two little snapping noises. I thought nothing of it as I assumed it was some gravel on the road or something. Later on i noticed it was getting quite warm in the cab so I decided to move the driver's side temp control over to the cool setting. Still getting warm I decided to turn on the AC for a little bit. Well I found out that I can't get the switch to change from the floor duct to any other duct and I also can't get the temp controls to switch over to the cool side either. Is there a fuse for this panel? I looked at the fuse box but couldn't see any related fuses. Does anyone know what this could be? I want to avoid taking it to the dealer even though it's under warranty!!!

Thanks,
Steve

 

Had this problem on my Astro, vacuum hose connector broke. It uses vacumm to move the vents that switch from defrost to floor etc.. Not 100% certain its the same on your truck but most likely.

 

I had the same problem.

The plastic defroster door / dampener breaks off and has to be replaced.

Had mine fixed about 2 weeks ago, there is a TSB on this but I am not sure what the number is.
It's a major redo they replace the defroster door and an door actuator and the lower half of the heater assembly unit.
They had to remove the dash to accomplish this fix which I was not thrilled to hear, but they got everything back together and the control now works fine and I can't tell that they had the dash out.

It's under warranty and I would guess they have done a few already so let the dealer fix it.

Good luck with your repair job.

 

Jim,

I guess this is the TSB you are speaking of http://www.dodgeram.info/tsb/2003/24-004-03.htm

Thanks for the reply, I just wish it was better news, man it burns me up to leave my baby at the dealer at the mercy of someone that might not care for the truck like I do.

Thanks again,
Steve

 

Steve

I know exactly how you feel, or should I say "I CAN FEEL YOUR PAIN".

When they said remove the dash I thought This dosen't sound good, but as I said before they did a good job on the fix.

Good luck with yours.

Jim

 

Mine hasn't broke, but this has me concerned as my truck is over the 36k warranty limit. Do they do TSB's after the warranty? I know they do recalls.

 

If you read the TSB http://www.dodgeram.info/tsb/2003/24-004-03.htm at the end it says the following

Policy: Reimbursable within the provisions of the warranty.

So that to me sounds like it's covered under warranty only. Am I wrong here?

-Steve

 

Mine was under warranty I only had 13,000 miles on the odo at the time the repair was done, so I can't help you out.

 

mine did this when we knocked a vacuum plug loose on the firewall... does your 4WD and cruise control still work?

 

I'll try that on the way home tonight. Where was the hose that you knocked off on the firewall? Can you give me a proximity or something to look for?

 

Just about dead-center right underneath the rubber seal that the hood shuts down against... There were a cuople vacuum hoses with Tee fittings in them, which have rubber plugs covering them. We knocked one loose when pulling the trans out of the truck, a vacuum hose was pulling on it...

Anyways, in our case, we opened up the circuit that enables 4WD, Cruise Control, and the defrost vents. A dealer mechanic told me right away what to look for; sure enough, we'd opened up a vacuum test port by mistake...

If you cannot find it, try opening up the test ports and see if anything different happens. There's a good 12' of rubber hose that can rot and cause vacuum problems...

 

Well oddly enough I got in my truck yesterday to drive home and the vent is working now. It must have some how reset itself. It still scares me to think of it breaking though and you know it will happen after the warranty. Sure enough also I called around yesterday to try and setup an appointment and can you believe that you pay $45K for a truck and they won't give you a loaner car!!!!!! Anyway thanks to all for the help even though I didn't need it at this point.

 

I don't think you will find any vacume hoses disconnected, because as far as I know the "03's" do not produce any vacume
(no pump).

The noises you heard, "cracking sound" seems like the TSB will be the problem.