hvac not working properly

[atomicrabbit]

[SOLVED] hvac not working properly

Ok I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right section, so if I'm not.. sorry.

I have a 2001 Protege ES and I noticed my heat wasn't at 100%. It wasn't blowing as much as I thought it should and it wasn't as hot as I thought it should be either. So I did a bit of hunting down, and it seems like the dial for the heat/AC isn't doing it's full job. Here's what I mean:

I figured out that the black wire that is running horizontal in the images is connected to the heat/AC knob and when the knob turns it pushes/pulls the wire, which in-turn rotates the white piece of plastic.

AC on (heat/AC knob all the way to the LEFT)


Heat on (heat/AC knob all the way to the RIGHT)


I noticed the gear (or whatever it is) wasn't as far as it could go when the heat was on (all the way to the right). After pushing the white plastic piece a little further with my hand, the heat was MUCH hotter and was blowing significantly more. As you can see, it's slightly more rotated to the left in the following image compared to the the previous image:


SO my question is what can I do to fix this? Is there something that I can tighten that will make the gear turn all the way?

 

[atomicrabbit]

any ideas?

 

[chuyler1]

Unless you mucked around with it, the wire is probably where it is supposed to be. There could be something else wrong with your car that is causing you trouble. Check the fluid levels under the hood to make sure everything is in check.

 

[atomicrabbit]

ok let's work on the idea that MAYBE i did muck around with it. I started noticing the knob doesn't work as it's supposed to after I detached the console face plate in attempt to remove the radio. That was before I realized I did not have to remove the face in oder to get the radio out. Regardless to say, I pulled out the face (although I did not remove any wires) and now when I turn the knob for heat/ac, it does not always turn the white plastic piece (in the photos above). For example, if I turn the knob to AC, it seems to go cold, but if I turn it back to heat, it does not go to heat unless I manually push that white plastic piece. It seems like the wire is not positioned properly.

Like I said, I did not remove any wires, I just pulled the face out a bit (as you can see from the following image:


...but I think the wire is not position properly which is why it's not pushing/pulling properly.

The one thing I DID notice is that after manually pushing the white plastic piece, the heat was noticeably warmer and blowing noticeably harder than even before when it was (supposedly) working properly.

Any help? Suggestions?? If someone could take a look how the wire connected to the heat/Ac knob is positioned maybe it would help.

 

[atomicrabbit]

ok GOOD NEWS. With a bit more fiddling around, I figured it out. The metal clip on the wire (as seen in the 3 images from my first post) was supposed to clip onto the white plastic thing just behind it. I guess when I pulled the face off, it detached the clip.

As you can see from the bottom image, "A" was supposed to slide into "B" which secured the line and allowed the knob to turn the white plastic piece properly:

When it detached, the plastic piece was still turning but not fully. I guess I figured this one out on my own. But thanks anyhow. I guess it will serve a purpose to anyone who has the same or similar problem.

EDIT: btw, if you didn't know. The white plastic pieces that are in the photos I took are located just behind the glove box. To get to it, remove the glove box (easy to do) and it should be in plain view. The pictures taken are from an '01 protege, but I would assume it's fairly similar in other model mazda's.