FAQ: Warm/Hot Air on Drivers Side, Cold on Passenger Side

It's 103 outside...HOT HOT HOT...

Center vents blowing nice cold air. had to raise temp as it was getting chilly.

I'd sure check and get your a/c systems drained, and refilled the proper way.

I've not seen any definate examples of the inner a/c door being broken. There's a few examples of our actuators being out of whack or broken, but I've been convinced that if the passenger side blows cold, and the center/driver's side is warm...then a fresh recharge is an option that you should look into.

This is not a how to... yet. This is a, please help me understand what the hell i'm about to do.

I have no air on the driver's side of the car. The passenger side blows somewhat cold. I also notice heat coming from the center column below and behind the center console.

I've read on here, can't find the exact post right now, that the simple fix for symptoms like this is to charge with new freon.

So, here is what I came up with. I have the tube + valve tool + freon and I think I found where to do it. I just see two valves on the line and not sure which one to charge.

Please help me. Is it the red circled valve or the blue one I need to charge? Or both? And do I just start the car and add a can of freon? thats it? thank you!

they can only go on one way. if the tube dont fit one,then it will fit the other one.its the blue!
you start the cr and let it get up to temp.turn ac on full cold and fill.
i would let a pro do it.filling it up too much is bad. worse than not enough.

The blue circled valve looks a bit bigger with a bigger diameter line. Perhaps this is the low pressure port? Do I fill there?

Robo, it says skill level easy, DIY, are you sure I need a pro?

You charge through the high side, which is the larger fitting. I know, they look like they are on the same line, so how could it be? But this crazy-looking design from GM is not as wrong as it seems. The two are actually independent. There's a barrier inside the line that separates them! I know, confusing!

Just look at the size of the fitting on the booster can. Measure it if you have to. It should match up to the larger fitting (HI SIDE).

AA wrote:

You charge through the high side, which is the larger fitting. I know, they look like they are on the same line, so how could it matter? But this crazy-looking design from GM is not as wrong as it seems. The two are actually independent. There's a barrier inside the line that separates them! I know, confusing!

Aaron, you mean the blue circled port? right? the bigger diameter port and line?

Also, I don't have a PSI gauge on my adapter. Can I have a friend sit in the car and let me know when it starts getting cold then stop? I was told to dump the entire can in, but heeding to Robo's advice, this would be bad. Correct?

In your picture, yes the blue circle. But in most diagrams, HI is represented by red, LO is blue. You need to get a gauge, so you can monitor the system pressure. There is a dial on the gauge that you rotate according to ambient temp. It will tell you the correct range for the system.

the reason to have a pro,or at least a friend who has a vacumn pump,is to remove all the old refrigerant. this way you dont overfill
otherwise add just a little at a time.the can of refrigerant should come with a relative humidity chart.use it.

You charge through the LOW pressure port (the one closest to the firewall), which is the RED circle in your picture. Luckily, R134 is dummy proof, so the ports are different sizes, and your recharge hose won't fit on the HIGH pressure port (BLUE circle in your picture), which is larger.

UPDATE: I had my mechanic friend flush and fill for me. No dice. Cold on the passenger side and hot on the driver side. No, climate control is not stuck!

Are there ducts that are running from the bay to the interior that may be jammed? Directing cold air only to one side?

Quote :

You charge through the LOW pressure port (the one closest to the firewall), which is the RED circle in your picture. Luckily, R134 is dummy proof, so the ports are different sizes, and your recharge hose won't fit on the HIGH pressure port (BLUE circle in your picture), which is larger.

Oops, my bad. Thanks for the correction!

Thanks for the thread splice, Aaron.
I am going to remove the center console tomorrow and see if i can find out how the ducting works and if thats the cause.

It seems this happens to quite a few Riv owners. Maybe a read through will shed some light on your problem.

Just did a lap through this thread. Respect and appreciation for this forum and everyone here just went up in my kokoro.

I will check the servos in the glovebox tomorrow and start pulling out the dash if it comes to it. Thanks, guys.

Cool beans. You may also find this link handy (I'll post a copy on page one of this thread for future ref):

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t2500-write-up-hvac-assembly#27279

Here is another link that shows how to add r134a to your car. It is part of the compressor write up. https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t6120p45-write-up-ac-compressor-clutch-replacement

AA wrote:

Cool beans. You may also find this link handy (I'll post a copy on page one of this thread for future ref):

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t2500-write-up-hvac-assembly#27279

Thanks again, homey. This is what i'll be targeting.

Hi guys my ac works on the passenger side, but driver side and center arm wrest doesnt blow cold, just heat, any ideas?

bmcd9179 wrote:

Hi guys my ac works on the passenger side, but driver side and center arm wrest doesnt blow cold, just heat, any ideas?

Possibly low on refrigerant. That has solved that problem for others here.

Otherwise there could be an issue with the blend door actuators - does it blow hot and ambient, but not cold? If so, it's probably low on refrigerant. Don't blindly add a can though - make sure you get the high and low side pressures checked first.

bmcd9179 wrote:

Hi guys my ac works on the passenger side, but driver side and center arm wrest doesnt blow cold, just heat, any ideas?

Possibly your blend door actuator. I had the EXACT same symptoms as you.

That's what my problem was. I replaced the actuator and BINGO. Got my cold air back.

After an exceedingly long time of running without driver side actuators, I decided to go ahead and replace the defective parts so I'd have heat this winter without needing to crawl under the dash to change the temperature. I purchased two new Dorman actuators after double checking part numbers.

Everything works great other than being completely in reverse. Full heat makes cold air come out, full cold makes heat come out. Setting the control to "floor" causes the middle vents to activate. Changing it to middle makes it go out to floor.

I've tried pulling the battery terminal and letting it reset. It goes through the 'calibration' for about two minutes. Then everything comes out normal on passenger side, but reversed on driver side.

At this point I'm at a loss to figure this out. The actuators plug in one way and connect one way. I don't see any way that I could have reversed everything. Other than having to set it backward (ran it at 90*F for full cold) it fixed my issue.

Another actuator I just replaced on my Fleetwood worked perfect out of the box. Swapping it with the one from the Riv (604-106) worked fine as well. When in the Caddy, the actuators behaved and calibration went along just fine. No issues appeared. When in the Riv it would just operate backward after calibrating.

If anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate it. I'm probably overlooking something stupid. LOL

Alright. Figured out the issue and it was quite stupid. I had to open up the actuators to figure out how I'd crossed everything up.

The Riv uses Dorman 604-111 and 604-106. Problem is that the lower two actuators on the driver's side (Vent control and temp control) use 604-111. The reference guide I used specified 604-106. Externally both actuators are the same. Internally they are very different.

Dorman 604-111 seems to have an additional variable resistor in it that allows it to 'fine tune', whereas 604-106 is a less sophisticated unit and just moves between preset destination as near as I can tell. I didn't realize this difference until I compared both units. My computer was essentially trying to calibrate and getting all sorts of mixed up signals because it expected one part and had the other. I swapped the ones I had for the passenger side (again, backward part listing) with the ones that I thought went on the driver's side and everything worked perfect.

The main failure of the original actuators was that the main control gear was a two piece unit. It's a plastic/nylon wheel with a metal slotted rod driven through it. Over time the metal either cracks the wheel or grinds it loose with usage. This results in noisy grinding as the part breaks down.

Relatively speaking, the actuator is fairly robust other than the faulty gear design. The only main difference going from the original unit to the new type unit is that the Dorman gear design is all in one piece of plastic. It also has spokes around the rim to further reinforce it so that it shouldn't crack under any amount of conventional use. I believe this is why the new units tend to be reported as more reliable.

End result? We pay $100 (depending on where you get it) for a $0.50 cent cracked gear.

It's good to have heat again!

Nice find. Glad you got it working properly!

This is the two part gear design with a crack in progress. Finally found where I tossed the old actuators so I could snap a pic.

Natesriv wrote:

The yellow arrow is the gear which connects the motor gearing to the metal wheel (the white arrow). The red arrow shows a blue gear which I believe tells the PCM how many revolutions that actuator has turned... This revolution count MIGHT be the reason the actuator doesn't move the full range.

Thanks for the picture. I aligned my blue gear up like your picture shows and it works now like it should.