I'm having an issue with my wife's 2014 Pathfinder Platinum. It's been going on for over a year now, and no one seems to be able to figure out how to fix it. Hoping someone on here has some ideas or experience with something similar.
About a year and a half ago, the A/C stopped blowing out of the defrost and foot vents. When you press the Mode Button the visual on the A/C screen shows that it's cycling through the different vent choices (top, front, bottom, bottom/front), but it only blows out of the front vents. Also, when you press the Mode Button, the air flow drops by about half. Once that happens, the only way to get it blowing hard again is to turn the car off then on again. When the car is turned on, you can control the fan speed with the speed control dial, but once the mode button is pressed you can't control it anymore until the car is restarted.
First thought was Mode Door Actuator. Nope. It's good. Next thought after some research was the amplifier. I bought one from a junk yard and replaced it. No change.
About a year ago, I brought it to the first mechanic. He checked everything and he couldn't find anything, but I might need to get the dealership to reprogram the computer to make sure everything is working properly. I brought it to the dealer. They said that couldn't be the issue, and without a $150 diagnostic fee the couldn't tell me more. They could reprogram the A/C but couldn't guarantee that would fix the problem. My wife has dealt with it since then.
About 2 months ago she brought it to the dealer again for a diagnostic workup, now $200. They told us she was low on freon and needed the compressor changed. They filled it with freon with out asking and charged us. To figure out why it was low on freon, they would need to keep it overnight and charge another fee to find the leak(s). I don't trust them, and I don't believe the compressor is bad, so I brought it to another mechanic.
The new mechanic charged $120 for a diagnostic workup. First thing he did was called BS on the compressor change out. He kept it over overnight and found two leaks. One on the condenser which needed to be changed out, and one on the freon line to the back A/C system where the line penetrated the bulkhead. He fixed both and checked out everything else. He couldn't find anything wrong with any of the actuators, but he thought that maybe the amplifier was bad. I thought that the junk yard amplifier might have been bad, so he bought another one and replaced it. It didn't solve the issue.
While we were talking, I told him that I changed that amplifier out a year ago. He asked if I had the system reprogrammed for the new amplifier. I didn't. AH-HA. That seemed to be the problem, but because I didn't have the original amplifier, he couldn't reprogram the new one. Something about not having the original codes. SO, I needed to bring it back to the dealership to reprogram the new amplifier. They charged $180 to reprogram the amplifier, and that DID NOT fix the issue. My mechanic called the dealership to get further information. The dealership tech said that when he plugged the code reader up to the system EVERYTHING showed "FAIL", but he didn't report that because he was told to only reprogram the amplifier that they hadn't installed. When my mechanic plugged in his code reader, everything reads normal. Not sure what's going on there.
My mechanic called someone he knows in the parts department at the dealership to figure out what was going on. His friend said to bring the vehicle back into the dealership, and they would run a diagnostic on the A/C system, no charge. They still said that everything failed their code reader, but they found what looked like a cut ribbon cable (white/blue trace) near the mode door actuator. The ribbon had 3 wires and was about 1/4" wide with a white plug near the end. My mechanic said that he would take a look and figure it out. What looked like a cut ribbon was actually the end of the cable after it passed through a clamp on plug assembly. It was supposed to be like that.
My mechanic is trying one last look for loose connections thinking that with all of the different hands under the dash, maybe someone pulled something out or put something back together incorrectly. If he can't find anything, there's nothing more he can do without tearing out the dash and really digging into the A/C system components.
If anyone can help with diagnosing this, it would be GREATLY appreciated.
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