Hello everyone,
My son just gave me this truck which runs really good. However it does have a problem. It has auto climate control and the heater is not working. It blows cold air trough all the vents. About 2 weeks ago he said that when he turned the heater on, it would blow hot air on the passenger side vents but would blow cold air on the driver side vents. Now, when heater is on, its all cold air on all vents. I started the engine up and let it reach operating temperature and than checked the heater hoses at the firewall and both hoses are Hot which means the heater core is circulating ok, not plugged. So, that leads me to believe that a Temp. door actuator has gone bad. The question is: which one. I believe there are 3 or 4 of this actuators on this truck. Have any of you had this problem before and can share the fix for this problem? Or, do any of you have a troubleshooting chart on the climate control or HVAC ?. Another thing he mentioned is that when he would try to set a specific heat temp., for example 80 degrees, it would show 80 and than change to 60 and up and down. Maybe its the control module. Thanks for your help with this issue.

 

You probably have both mode actuators bad. You said it worked for the passenger side a while back but not now. The control is probably good. The actuators are all plastic with plastic gears, they don't last forever. They go bad.

 

Thank you old chevy for your response. Do you by any chance have a drawing of the actuators that are used on this truck? I think some are called Temperature Door Actuators and others Mode Door actuators. I would think that there is a actuator that opens up the heater door or flapper or whatever it is called to let the hot air out to the vents. Here at O'reilleys auto parts they want $ 106.00 each so I don't want to replace all of them if I don't have to. Maybe if you or another member has a parts breakdown of the hvac system for this truck and can send it to me or just post it here would be great. A guy here in town told me that the most common actuator to go bad on this model truck is the passenger side door actuator but that it is the toughest one to change out. He said he had the same model truck a few years back and he had the same problem. He tried to replace the actuator himself but could not do it. So, he took it the the chevy dealer to put a new actuator and it cost him $ 2500.00 to fix it. I cannot afford that at all. He did mention to me that the dealer stated on his repair bill that they had to remove most of the dash to get to the actuator and that took a lot labor. I am retired and have plenty of time so no matter how long it takes, I can tackle the job.

 

2003 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 2500 6.0L V8 Heater Air Door Actuator | RockAuto

 

The charm.li website has manuals for your truck, including the HVAC system. This may not be the right engine, but the actuators are the same on all of them.

Air Door Actuator / Motor — 2003 Chevrolet C 2500 Suburban 2WD V8-6.0L VIN U Service Manual | Operation CHARM

 

Thank you Old Chevy. That is a good price on those parts. Once I know which actuator I need, I will order it or them from Rockauto parts.

 

Thank you jfmorris for your help and the link that you provided here. I will go there and see If I can find a trouble chart for this problem.

 

Sorry guys for not answering sooner on this repair that I was doing on my 2003 chevy 2500. I had to go out of state and just came back last week. I had to replace 2 of the blend door actuators on this truck. I had options of using less expensive parts but decided to get the GM parts from Rockauto.
It took a while cause it was my first time doing this job but it was well worth. The repair shops here in town wanted over $1000. to do the job and by me doing it, it cost 110.00. They said it was expensive because they had to remove the dash to do the repair. Anyway, got it all done and now have good AC and heater working.
Thanks to all of you that helped me with this repair, I really appreciate all your help.

 

So I take it YOU were able to replace the actuators without removing the dash? I.e. the shops were wanting to rip you off by doing unnecessary work...