I have a dodge neon 2001 that is having a strange heat problem. I got a flush and thermostat change at the start of this week and its giving me the same problem.

When the heater is on on different modes it gives me different heats.

-If I have the windshield selecter selected, the center dash vent for the windsheild blows warm heat and the two side window defroster blow cold air.

-if i have the middle dash seleter selected the center vents blow warmer air and the side ones are a little cooler.

-if i have the feet selecter selected, the air at my feet is cold.

Im not sure where to begin to troubleshoot this problem. Any ideas?

 

Do you know if the instrument panel was removed from the car? Possibly for a heater core replacement? It sounds like maybe the blend door is out of adjustment. When the instrument panel is removed from the car the HVAC control head has to be twisted and turned and the control cables can easily get out of adjustment. There is a simple adjusment procedure in the manual.

 

No the instrument panel has never been removed since i owned it, 3 years now. I stopped at my dodge dealership and they suggested the actuator or mode door unit, I guess thats the blend door.I will look in the manual to see what they suggest.

Is the blend door hard to reach on this model?

 

There are 3 doors on the HVAC housing; blend, mode and recirculation. The manual will tell you to remove the HVAC housing from the vehicle to do any maintenance on it, which requires the entire instrument panel (dash) to be removed. I would check the easy things first like the cables and vacuum hoses. Just remove the 2 center vent barrels, then 2 screws to remove the center bezel (around the stereo and HVAC controls. Then just 2 screws and you can pull the HVAC control head out to check the cables and vacuum hoses. You'll be able to see part of the HVAC housing also at this point. Maybe you'll get lucky and see something obvisouly wrong.