My automatic climate control blows at a low speed when in heating mode until the heater core gets hot, then fan speed picks up until it is blowing lots of hot air. It seems to be blowing in a combination of the defrost and face vents. It gets really hot in car and the fan speed never turns down (passengers and driver very hot too). When I manually change to direct air to feet, very little air is coming out. I removed the center console to investigate the problem and the servo for the blend seems to be working, even when the servo was removed and I manually turned the gear, I did not get much air at footwell. A broken linkage for the distribution flap seems most plausible. The one thing I don't understand if this is the case, is why does the system not turn down fan speed when the interior comes to temp.
I took to dealer, they said it was the temp sensor which they cleaned- did not fix it.
Any thoughts would be helpful. If you think it is the linkage, how much time is involved in this if DIY.

 

Well, it was a giant pain, but the climate control is fixed. I had to pull the dash (big job) but I did find the culprit- the flap that controls air to the foot. The elbow was cracked that connects to the control wheel- resulting in it staying in the closed position, so air was only going to face/defrost area. Even when fan would turn to lowest speed, it still sounded loud/blew on face. Check out the mechanism that controls the flaps (big green wheel).
I have all the other linkages. PM me if you would like to purchase...

 

Now that you found the actual problem, was it necessary to pull the entire dash apart or is there an easier way to access that controller? Thanks and congratulations on solving your problem: just think what the dealer would have charged!!!

Eric

 

No easier way that I can think of. I guess if you could cut the dash to separate the lower part (where stereo, climate, etc. is) from the main upper part, that would help LOTS. The most annoying thing is that I now have an airbag light on because I attached battery and put in key to test things while the steering wheel bag was disconnected. Now I the light will not go out- apparently until I take to dealer to reset. I am hoping that when I show them what they missed, they can reset the light for free for me.

 

I have received some private meassages on this issue. I am posting what I know here. If you have the automatic climate control and you cannot get control the airflow to the foot (by using the manual controls), there is likely a problem with the flap directing air to the foot. The servo that controls the flaps controls them all, so if you press the various settings for face, foot, defrost, you should hear the servo moving if you put your head to the center stack at the base in the left side footwell as you press the various buttons (obviously with corresponding changes in airflow). If this checks out, the linkage to the flap controlling the foot is likely broken. I cannot find the part number, but all the linkages and flaps are sold together under name "small parts" in the climate control. while it may be possible to do a fancy glue job on the elbow that breaks, I am not sure it would hold up. It is a 3-4 hour job to pull the dash to get at this. Not fun, but it was worthwile for me. The A pillar tabs are likely to break ( super glued mine and got new clips). when pulling the a pillar covers you want to pull straight back and slightly towards the interior of the car. They break loose all at once, so careful not to hurt yourself. Disconnect the battery and do not reconnect until you have the job done and airbags reconnected so you do not have to go to the dealer to have airbag light fixed