I have a 2003, 1500, 5.7 Hemi, 200,000 miles. Yesterday morning when changing from vent to defrost to clear foggy windsheild, nothing happened. I had noticed over the past couple of weeks it was slow to change from vent to defrost to floor vents. I assume there is a broken vacumn line but have no idea where to look or how hard it will be to repair. Can someone help me out with what I need to do to fix this? How hard will it be?
Thanks
Michael

 

03 may be an exception but from my experience working with 3rd gens, there is no vacuum system for the vent controls, its all electric. They're notorious for having issues with the mode door actuator, which moves the airflow between settings. Sometimes the door itself can break and hang up, the mode and blend doors are on the air handling unit under the dash. Unless there is some trick, the labor guide shows removal of the dash is needed to replace either of the actuators or doors.

 

Thanks for info Big Sloth. Any idea what it may cost to repair. Pulling the dash may be more than I am up to.
Michael

 

Depends on how much you want to spend.
Proactively, if I was to yank the hvac box, I'd get new damper doors, new heater core, new a/c evaporator. Probably even that sensor that clips into the a/c coil.
I was quoted 1200 from a carage to replace a heater core.
I did it, probably in alot more time than they may have. Took me 10+ hours, not working like a dog, taking my time.

 

price is really going to vary with what has to be done to whatever component is actually bad...

Just dash removal and getting the HVAC box out alone with evac and recharge for the AC is almost 800 in labor. Then factor in the extra labor for whatever needs to be done, cost of parts, tax, etc.

It's really not that bad to pull the dash yourself, but I do it professionally so my opinion on ease of doing something is worthless to someone outside a shop.

In a shop with all tools needed, and air and power tools, flying blind having never done one before, I did an evaporator in a durango in about 7 hours but that required removing the front seats and center console too. Its nothing you cant do on a saturday in the backyard.

 

you will, however, need to have the AC evacuated first if you're doing it yourself. And then have them pull at least a 45 minute vacuum and recharge when you're done.

 

Mullism.

My 03 did exactly as yours early in April this year. This is what I'm going with closer to winter as my solution.
Check this site out and in particular, the videos on the how to diagnose which door/s have broken and how to repair.
http://www.heatertreater.net/
Hope this helps?
Al.