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2014 Chrysler Town and Country w\dual climate control HVAC fan does intermittent

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2 years 6 months ago #51943 by Mitchroberson
OK, So I thought I had figured this out. But I have not. I have a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country with Dual Automatic climate control. And the HVAC blower does not come on for about 10 min. It did not use to be this way you could use Manual and turn it all the way up and it would start blowing right then. 
I have used an oscilliscope to check the fan motor itself and pattern is nice and clean. So do not think the fan is bad. We have determined that this is ground side switched. The fan is a 2 wire fan and one side is battery voltage. the other varys based on fan speed. Both wires go to fan control module. 
At low when working correctly it is 7.8 Volts on the ground side
At high when working it is around .38 volts on the ground side. 
When not working and switch is set to high we have about 7.9 volts on ground side. Now when I say not working we did find the fan was moving but at low speeds not high speeds. 
I found some articles or videos that said this had to do with blend doors as they had to be in the right position. So I have pulled all blend door actuators and tested them. As well as properly calibrated them manually. The Motor external gear has a flat spot that should line up with arrow on housing is what I have found online which could be wrong but makes some sense. All motors turn freely and in both directions so do not think it is the actuator itself. 
I did find a canada tsb about calibrating the doors which I have done 3 times with scan tool. it seems to help for about 2 operations maybe 3 then the problem is back. All data does not have a great explanation of how this works that I have been able to find. 
I am wanting to confirm Inputs to HVAC control module because I am thinking that there is an input that may need to be at x value for the fan to ramp up. But again not sure as I have not found a good explanation of how this system works and what inputs dictate fan control and temperature door actuation. 

Thanks. 

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2 years 6 months ago #51949 by Mitchroberson
So this is the report I get when I do calibration test. It usually fails with a time out.

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2 years 6 months ago #51950 by Mitchroberson
Also no DTCs in the hvac module.

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2 years 6 months ago #51952 by Tyler
I was going to ask for the HVAC calibration results, but then you posted a screenshot. B)

Out of all the actuators that failed, I'm immediately suspicious of the recirc door. I seem to remember the fan speed getting dialed down automatically every time the recirc door opens and closes. Plus, I see the recirc doors fail on these regularly. :lol: They have a bad habit of snapping off the drive end of the door itself. The HVAC module usually sets an overtravel code.

That doesn't mean it can't be the left temp door, of course. Were any of the actuators Dorman? I see those cause more problems than they solve.

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2 years 6 months ago #51954 by Mitchroberson
No actuators were doorman, and all physically work when voltage applied in both directions.
Still do not have any docs so far.

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2 years 6 months ago #52060 by Mitchroberson
So been reading through articles and trying to diagnose cause. Found that rear fan has been having intermittent issues as well.
The rear when on auto will go off and on and flash the ac instrument panel if it is set to view rear.
Front fan I can see the fan control is commanding it to high. But the fan does not go on high. Looking at ground side voltage does not drop like it does once it works.
Going to hook test light up today for fan circuit to see if it goes up like it is supposed to. May have been reading to much into it.

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2 years 6 months ago #52073 by Mitchroberson
OK so after reading alot and doing several tests and a really good visual inspection we found the issue. So to recap. Complaint as AC blower Not working for the first 3-10 min after startup and occasionally for the entire drive. This is the automatic temperature control unit for both passenger and driver. with a second blower unit in the rear. Rear also seems to cut out every so often. 
AC is fine and blower was scoped for current and looked good. 
These cars have an HVAC control unit, and blower power module and then the blower. The HVAC control unit has several "Inputs" that will tell it when the fan should be controlled high or low. This car has 4 - 2 wire blend door actuators. 1 for each of the following
Driver Blend Door
Passenger Blend Door
Recirc blend door
Main actuator for hot or cold
From what I can tell each actuator does a bump check to see which position it is in. it does this by apply voltage on the last known side until it bumps close increasing amperage. At least this is the way I understand it. once each door has completed the check it will then send the command to power up the fan it if is set to high or medium. 
be aware that the HVAC module may say fan is on high. Even though it is not or at least the PID I was loooking at said it was a 7 which is the highest selection. however fan as not running high. 
We found that the recirc blend door was broken. And no longer connected to the Actuator. we were able to disconnect the actuator. the computer does 4 Blower tests Low to high 4 times. And then it all starts working as expected. The recirc blend door is stuck in recirc now and the actuator is disconnected. All zones work as expected after the 4 blower tests. it now takes about 1 min for it t complete and everything works well. 
Hope this helps someone else out at some point. 
The following user(s) said Thank You: Noah, Tyler

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2 years 6 months ago #52082 by Noah
Nice work, glad you got to the bottom of it.

"Ground cannot be checked with a 10mm socket"

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