Crazy recirc door issue

Hopefully someone has seen this before because I don't even know where to start. My recirc door works ONLY when the ignition is on, but the engine is off. As soon as I turn the engine on, the door moves somewhere in the middle of the recirc box, and kind of just jerks back and forth. It never makes it to one side or the other. As soon as I turn the engine off and have just the ignition on, the door begins to work just as it should and goes fully from one side to the other when the button is pressed.

I tried to make it as easy to see as possible in this video, in the beginning the engine is off and as you can see the door works perfectly. Then I turn the motor on and the door starts to jerk around and not work correctly. Then at the end of the video I turn the motor back off and the door starts working again. Has anyone ever seen this before?

3F6A3159-6DF1-4B45-96C5-0879956D7E92.mp4 Video by justin13703 | Photobucket

Anybody? Lol

Video doesn't work


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Well damn. I'm not too sure what to do about that then

Well I took it to the dealership and had them look at it and they say the recirc door is broken, which doesn't sound right to me because like I said with the engine off it works perfectly fine. How would it be broken only when the engine is running? If it really is broken that will say a lot about the quality of this part, to be broken with less than 40k miles on the truck.

Anyway I think I'm gonna pull the dash at some point to look at it myself, is there a write up floating around anywhere for getting to the recirc/blend doors/heater core on an 06-08? I've found a couple for 02s and 03s but the dash has changed a good bit since then.

These doors are definitely flimsy and Dodge have never improved the design or material over the years even with all the failure reports...

Here is one idea : Maybe when the engine is running there is sufficient air pressure coming from the engine compartment to push on the door and prevent it from closing. If that is the case the dealer could be right and there could be a tab broken on the rotating axe of the door.

Here is a second idea : I would have a good look at all the grounds. There could be some interferences on some wires that is only present when the engine is running causing your issue.

I would trace the wires between the center controls all the way to the actuator and carefully look for broken or exposed wires. You could also try to swap 1 of the other actuator with the one for the recirc door and see if that changes anything.

Hope this helps.

Ok thanks for the tips, I'm definitely leaning toward something electrical. Do you know if the recirc door is can bus controlled or if it's good old 12v? If I could find a wiring diagram for it that would help, that way I could follow the wiring through everything involved in the movement of that door

check rockauto they have the kit and instructions that do not require removal of the HVAC assembly and you keep the dash in the truck for early models maybe they have some in the works for your truck.

I think I'll get the replacement recirc box assembly from the dealership and pull my dash cause they come with a new actuator as well and I'm not sure that the problem isn't the actuator anyway

Well I ended up just getting the new housing assembly that came with the box, door, and actuator and put it in myself and that fixed the issue. Although I think the problem was the actuator motor, not the door itself, the door wasn't broken and actually looked and moved like it was new

justin13703 said:

Well I ended up just getting the new housing assembly that came with the box, door, and actuator and put it in myself and that fixed the issue. Although I think the problem was the actuator motor, not the door itself, the door wasn't broken and actually looked and moved like it was new

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Got any more info/details/pictures of what you did. The Recirc door on my 2013 is broken and there is limited to no info available on what's involved to replace it.

Mpgrimm2 said:

Got any more info/details/pictures of what you did. The Recirc door on my 2013 is broken and there is limited to no info available on what's involved to replace it.

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I basically had to pull the entire dash of the truck out and sit it on the front seats. Almost like doing a heater core or something. Since yours is a 4th gen and mine is a 3rd, not much if any of the process will be the same. But I followed the write up below, pretty much walks you through how to do it step by step on a 3rd gen:

The Infamous HVAC Door Issue Strikes - Page 2 - Dodge Diesel - Diesel Truck Resource Forums