Interesting Electrical/HVAC issue

[tlbeck1985]

For starters, one of the of the actuators behind the radio bezel grinds terribly. Not the clicking I've seen talked about before. The blend door actuator was bad and stopped working completely. I have since changed that and it was working fine...for a few weeks. The control knob lights would randomly shut off, indicating a power issue, that would then prevent me from changing which vents the air would blow through. Not great when I needed to defrost and couldn't. I also have zero air flow to the feet when I select that option, even when everything appears to be working properly. The issue has slowly been worsening. Now the blend door will not work at all, I have completely lost power to be able to swap from defrost to vent, etc, and this began one morning when my head and taillights did not come on, even though I keep it on auto. I had to turn them on manually, and they came right on. Now the headlights randomly work in auto, the some of the hvac controls do not work at all, the blend door will not change from cold. I can still control the speed on the blower motor, but it seems to just flow very lightly out of every vent. I'm not seeing any frayed connections, loose wires or any obvious problems. I have read that the hvac controls are programmed to a specific vehicle and that can cause issues as well. It seems I have some sort of electrical issue that is getting worse and worse and I cannot track it down. Any help at all would be great.

 

[tron67j]

For starters, are you the original owner? I see you have a 2009 with a 5.7 liter engine. Have you replaced it added any electronics such as aftermarket fog lights, interior things like a inverter, etc. Was the blend door unit new, and did you verify the old unit was bad and not just getting incorrect power to it? How long have you been having the problems, and in what order did they start. Do you have any other problems?

If not the first owner, my first concern is if it is a flood vehicle. You can often figure it out by combination of sales history including location where you then look at historical information for that area around the time of sale. Also, check areas of the truck that generally should remain fairly rust free like seat connection bolts, around the connection points of the dash, etc.

First thing not to do is throw money at things until you verify they are defective. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here, hope we can help.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Have your battery load tested (Autozone or OReilly) for free. Might be the signs of a weakening battery.

I would also suggest looking closely at the battery connections and also the grounds. Make sure they're good and 'clean'. Esp being in the upper midwest, and an '09 is ripe for corroded grounds. The battery to body grounds, the batter->Engine grounds, Engine->frame grounds.. and so on. There are ground wires all over modern vehicles. There are probably several inside the vehicle as well. They are important because that's the electrical path to make good electrical circuits, and there are a lot of electronics on cars these days.

There's a major ground point which *should* be under a plastic door above (and slightly ahead of) your front L tire ....on the driver's side. They get rusty and crusty due to being closer to moisture, road salt, etc. There are also grounds near the rear of the vehicle for the taillights. If you want to be pro-active, there's an important one near the fuel tank filler neck, and those have been reported by owners (when the gnds don't make good contact) to possibly lead to intermitttent fuel pump operation.

 

[tlbeck1985]

For starters, are you the original owner? I see you have a 2009 with a 5.7 liter engine. Have you replaced it added any electronics such as aftermarket fog lights, interior things like a inverter, etc. Was the blend door unit new, and did you verify the old unit was bad and not just getting incorrect power to it? How long have you been having the problems, and in what order did they start. Do you have any other problems?

If not the first owner, my first concern is if it is a flood vehicle. You can often figure it out by combination of sales history including location where you then look at historical information for that area around the time of sale. Also, check areas of the truck that generally should remain fairly rust free like seat connection bolts, around the connection points of the dash, etc.

First thing not to do is throw money at things until you verify they are defective. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here, hope we can help.

Not the original owner. I did put in aftermarket headlights and taillights when I first bought it about 6 months ago. Other than a new radio, no other electrical has been added. I did not verify the old actuator was bad, I just slapped in a new one and it worked well...til now. The grinding was happening when I bought it, the blend door stopped next, then the controls would randomly not work, lastly the headlights in auto worked randomly and the hvac controls stopped working when that happened.//
I was worried about the flood issue too, but it's completely rust free. Clean carfax as well.

Thanks for replying!

 

[tlbeck1985]

I would be looking at the battery connections and also the grounds. The battery to body grounds, the batter->Engine grounds, Engine->frame grounds.. and so on. There are ground wires all over modern vehicles. There are probably several inside the vehicle as well. They are important because that's the electrical path to make good electrical circuits, and there are a lot of electronics on cars these days.

There's a major ground point which *should* be under a plastic door above (and slightly ahead of) your front L tire ....on the driver's side. They get rusty and crusty due to being closer to moisture, road salt, etc. There are also grounds near the rear of the vehicle for the taillights. If you want to be pro-active, there's an important one near the fuel tank filler neck, and those have been reported by owners (when the gnds don't make good contact) to possibly lead to intermitttent fuel pump operation.

Also, have your battery load tested (Autozone or OReilly) for free. Might be the signs of a weakening battery.

Good points! I will have the battery load tested today. That's a really good point that I hadn't considered yet. I really don't like to throw money at the issues either, but right now it's my only vehicle and I just started a new job. I just didn't want to have issues and be late or miss days because of my truck. I'll start checking, cleaning and tightening every ground I can find.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Ha, ha no problem ..good luck. Hope it helps.

Also, to clarify, to access that particular multi-ground connection I was talking about, you have to look "up" from the inner fender (like on your knees by the tire) the plastic door is part of the inner fender well cover. I hope I'm remembering that right and not confusing with another vehicle.

When you get your battery checked, ask them to check your alternator charging integrity, if their tool will do it.

 

[tlbeck1985]

Battery load tested as good to go...time to start looking for ground issues. Yay! lol

 

[tlbeck1985]

While checking for ground issues I remembered that you guys asked about anything electrical being added. That damn diablo tuner! I reset it to factory and everything is working perfectly... Nice waste of $400!