haze5736

I have a 2008 LS with single zone manual climate controls. The temperature blend door is broken so I'm in the process of tearing the car apart to replace it. The steering column and entire dash must come out of the vehicle. It seems like a pretty big job. I have not been able to find a single video or forum post about doing this job. I was hoping there was some sort of shortcut. In the meantime I'm following the procedure from Mitchell DIY.

One of the hardest parts so far has been getting the passenger airbag out. It was impossible to see all 8 or so clips that needed to be pressed to get the thing out. The ones on the side toward the windshield and the ones on the back toward the windshield were not visible. I had to just keep poking around the perimeter until it finally came free. I must have spent over an hour just trying to figure that out.

Now I'm having a hard time getting the top dash trim out. Maybe it's called the carrier cover? It's not the piece closest to the windshield, it's the black textured piece right on top of the dash. I'm pretty sure I got all the screws out. I'm not sure if there are clips holding it down and I just need to pry up and out. I don't want to break anything. Most of the plastic has been really brittle so far. Has anyone tackled this job that can offer some tips?

mountainmanjoe

Maybe this will help


https://charm.li/Chevy%20Truck/2008/...20Replacement/

Good luck. Big job.

haze5736

It looks like I won't have to go all the way. My part came in from the dealer. It includes a new white plastic cog or gear or whatever it is called that goes into the keyed slot in the temp blend door. The stop tab on my original cog is broken and it was turning all the way around inside the keyway. I thought maybe the keyway on the door was stripped out. It seems that is not the case and the new cog fits in the keyway nicely and moves the door between the stops just fine. I am going to leave it at that and put everything back together. Now I know how bad it will suck when I need to replace the heater core or the evaporator. This is good motivation to change the coolant regularly to keep the cooling system in good shape and avoid a heater core change for as long as possible. It does make me wonder how the stop broke off the original cog. And I'm hoping there is not some other problem that will cause it to happen again. Hopefully I can chalk it up to cheap plastics that baked in the Florida heat for 16 years and became brittle.

haze5736

It turned out that the new gear was turning all the way around in the keyed slot of the old blend door. It seemed fine at first when I operated it with my fingers. But after getting everything put back together and testing the heat I ended up with the same symptom as before. I ended up using some jb weld plastic epoxy. I was able to get some inside the keyed slot and put a thin coat on the gear's shaft. I let it dry for a day and everything has been working fine since. I even made a trip to Florida and back from New York and under heating and cooling everything worked fine. I'm sure I will have to open up the hvac box some day. At that point I will rebuild the entire box.