The blend door actuator started making a clicking noise than a couple of days later it would not blow any air through the front vents. It was replaced under warranty on 9/24/12. Today I started hearing the clicking noise again when I try to change vent position so I am guessing it will fail any day now. The problem is I am 2 months out of warranty. Will dodge replace the part again since it is only 5 months old? or am I stuck with the repair cost? What I'm trying to find out is - is there a separate warranty on the part they put in?

 

This is the K17 recall. I had it done 2x already and sometimes I hear blend door clicking but it has not gone out again yet. My last workorder said : Re-applied K17 recall. I think it is a safety recall since your defrosters essentially are blowing out the floor vent.

 

Its possible it may still be implied as a one year, 12k warranty since its only been five months, and maybe still covered.

 

Took it to the dealer today under the K17 recall. Now I have to wait and see what they say.

 

Geesh. I would think they would simply fix it again. Once you have a recall fix done and it does it again then something big is wrong. If they say no you should contact NHTS and let them know the problem is still continuing. Also write Dodge. Obviously this recall is not working out how it should.
Be interested to see what DodgeCares says about this.

 

If they do not cover it I would suggest contacting Chrysler directly at one of the numbers below to see if they will take care of the cost. The K17 recall was technically a recall for a software update. It states in the recall that if there was a problem with the actuators at the time of the reprogram to take care of them at that point but the recall was not for the actuators themselves. Still, many dealers do not give the customers a problem and cover it. It also depends on if you have a manual temperature control or not as to the procedure. If you feel you this should be covered contact Chrysler Customer Center and request it if the dealer denies it.

800-992-1997 United States
800-465-2001 Canada

 

Chris,

Looks like you beat me to the punch!

 

Update, the dealer said the door motors were bad (code B11C2-13) and not covered under the recall. But as a good will gesture they replaced the two actuators at no charge. This seems to correspond to what DodgeCares posted.

Now a questions for DodgeCares - shouldn't these actuators last more than five months? They were just replaced in September.

 

Yes they should. And if they were just replaced 5 months ago then they should be under warranty if they are Mopar parts. Goodwill, in this case, sounds like warranty coverage to me.

 

This is pure BS. The original recall notice was for reprogramming the controls and for inspection of the actuators. Since they have date codes for the bad parts (have had them from the beginning), why did they not inspect and replace the parts with bad date codes the first time? Why did they install parts with bad date codes on your truck to begin with? I think we can all figure it out.

I had the recall done and all they did was reprogram the controls, they did not remove the bezel and inspect the actuators or look for bad date codes. So what happened? after the 3/36k warranty ran out, the actuator failed and it was out of warranty. My tough luck, and I had to cover the repair costs. This was the Chrysler corporation playing games with their customers.

I used to be in charge of recalls for a large aerospace company for a specific line of products. I am well aware of management being run by a bunch of bean counters that over rule the engineers.

Sorry for the rant, but, Chrysler needs to understand that it's the little things and customer experiences that leave a sour taste in our mouths.