EpicFruit

I recently replaced the broken actuator for the temperature blend door on my 2006 Impala LS. It had a broken gear and was making very loud clicks when I adjusted the air temps. The replacement actuator is from RockAuto.com, made by Dorman, and it worked just fine right when I installed it. But after flipping the temperature **** back and forth, the new actuator started to make the clicking noise as well, except it sounded much faster and nowhere near as loud as the broken one did.

I'm guessing/hoping that the new actuator is just slipping the gears, without any broken ones, or that maybe I could swap out the broken(hopefully not) gear with the other actuator, since this one sounded like it was a different gear that was slipping.

I know these actuators are made in China, but seriously, are they really that flimsy? It lasted literally less than 30 seconds. I am also suspecting that the blend door itself is slightly clogged, requiring more force to turn than usual, and causing the actuator to fail. I did turn the blend door **** by hand while the broken actuator was out. It turned quite smoothly, although it was spring loaded, and turned itself back to the cold temp position when I let go. I did not notice any unusual resistance when I was turning that ****, but I also have no idea how it's supposed to be.

Does anyone know if this could be a problem with the temperature blend door itself that needs to be cleaned? Could that even cause something like this?

headrat

Epicfruit, This very thing happened to me--same car-- same problem. After you change out a blend door actuator or any of the hvac actuators you must "Calibrate" them. I also had to right away buy another one because of my not knowing this. To "Calibrate" the actuators simply remove the "Display" 10 amp fuse in the main fuse box under the hood for at least one minute. This fuse is near the top of the fuse box. and clearly labeled on the lid as "Display". Make sure all Hvac dash controls are set to minimum or off. Then reinstall the fuse and turn the key to on (run position). The Hvac control module will run all the actuators through their cycles and determine their "home" positions. This is the procedure for the dual climate control system. I do not know if this would work on a standard hvac system or not. I am new to this forum and sorry I didn't see your problem sooner. I am sure this will help others and I am sure you have fixed yours for the final time by now. Thank goodness the actuators from Rock are not expensive. Now I think I need another one for our OTHER 2006 Impala.LOL.

EpicFruit

Thanks so much for the info! To this day I still have not replaced the temp actuator since it's the middle of summer and I've left it on the cold setting. The new actuator that I thought was broken turned out to be slipping. I swapped out the good gear from the new actuator with the broken gear from the original actuator, and there I had a Frankenstein actuator that worked.

Unfortunately, the AC/intake actuator broke as well. So I installed my working Frankenstein actuator onto the AC/intake blend door because I need it in order for the AC to work properly. Now I'm waiting for another actuator to get here from RockAuto so I can follow the calibration procedure and get my temp control working again before I start college and have no time or tools to work on my car.

Thanks again for the info. Now there's hope that I won't freeze to death this winter!