2003 heat/air selector

HELP Please. My daughter's 2003 cav is having problems with the knob that is suppose to select defrost, mix, upper,lower etc. The knob seems to be sprung. It will not select the first or last positions. It just springs back to the ones in the middle. Also it seems that all the air comes out of the front vents and not the defrost. I looked for a manual (Haynes) but they did not have one that covered the 2003 model. Ours is a 4 door with the 2.2 ecotec and automatic tranny.

I searched for posts and found some that mentioned vacuum lines, but they were not 2003 models.

Those run on vaccum pressure.. check the connection behind the HVAC control pannel and see if it has come undone somehow.. you will need to remove the whole dash in order to access this.

UPDATE - I took the upper dash and the front dash off. I removed the panel screws and looked behind and below the control knob. I did not see any vaccuum lines, but I did find an arm that pulls/pushes a steel cable in a black sleeve. It appears to have a kink in it. In other words it is bent on the end that attaches to the arm. The other end goes to a black round cylinder that directs air up to the defrost/front vents etc. Does anyone know if the kink in the cable is suppose to be there? How about a part number for the cable?

I went to the Dealer today and picked up a new wire cable (GM part #89018243 $16.94 + Tax) because the old one was kinked and should have been straight. The parts that it attaches to are ACDelco #15-72858 Actuator Air Inlet Valve and the other end to ACDelco #15-72884 Heater Control. As soon as the temp outside warms up I'll replace it!

I went to the Dealer today and picked up a new wire cable (GM part #89018243 $16.94 + Tax) because the old one was kinked and should have been straight. The parts that it attaches to are ACDelco #15-72858 Actuator Air Inlet Valve and the other end to ACDelco #15-72884 Heater Control. As soon as the temp outside warms up I'll replace it!

Real old thread, but we had the same problem on our 2003 and fixed it by doing the same thing! But by September 2008 the Chevy dealer in Canada charged me $35 CAD for the cable! It took me hours taking everything apart, lieing on my back trying to follow the cable up to the assembly that regulates air flow. But instead of just replacing the cable, I sprayed white grease lubricant on the hinges and everything that moved in the assembly. So now the new cable moves easily as does the HVAC control knob.

The dealer wanted $90 plus tax to install the cable. I doubt they'd go to the effort of lubricating the levers that got sticky over time stressing and finally kinking the HVAC cable. But it cost me a Saturday afternoon lieing on my back much of the time, swearing a blue streak, fighting trying to see the parts. But with persistence I got the job done right. I'm a backyard/driveway mechanic with a "B" rating. Maybe now an "A".

I've got photos of the cable and up under the dash. Contact me and I'll share them.

Mark

Mark

My daughters 03 Cavalier has a kinked cable.
Love to see the pictures.
What steps to remove the dash?
Did you have to remove the steering wheel?

Mike

i know this is an old thread tho i just got a 04 with this issue

1. there is "no" vac lines that control this, its all by cable "as was stated above"
2. #1 issue to cause the bending in linkage is a huge cable harness resting on the damper wheel.

i was not in no way going to take apart to fix this, i did do a lot of feeling around. the damper wheel is on the "left" high side of the box very hard for people with big hands to get in there. there is a metal plate right next to the change box, along with a huge wire harness right next to or resting on the wheel, you will know what this wheel is when you feel the cable atached to it, turn it you will see the control know move, this wheel should not be hard to turn but easy, if it feels at all hard, check to make sure the harness is not resting on it, even a little resting will cause this control basicly inoprable


i sprayed the damper wheel area with a lubricant and tied back that huge wire harness from resting on this damper wheel. this has more or less solved the problem, it seems the cable is bent but again not worth the time to fix it, it does now go into defrost mode which is needed highly on the cavs. only 2 dont fully work which is re-circulate and full defrost. im sure replacing the cable will cure all, anyone having this issue on 03-05 cavs, make sure that harness is off that wheel. good luck

... it seems the cable is bent but again not worth the time to fix it ...

Once the heater control cable has been bent, indicated by no air flow through the defrost vent, the cable's got to be replaced.

Lubing the air flow mechanism high up inside the dash as well as moving aside anything rubing against it may help, but the real problem is a design that puts so much pressure on the cable that it eventually kinks. Since the air control settings are frequently changed, it'll inevitably happen again every few years.

The cable is cheap enough but it's a pain getting your hand up there to attach it. But I have large hands and minimal mechanical skills. As long as you have a shed to work in, a small bench the height of the door sill to support your back, along with patience and persistence, most guys should be able to fix it.

In a Canadian winter, once fixed, my wife can't thank me enough!

I can't imagine with cold spreading all over North America this winter how many Cavaliers/Sunbirds have a defroster not working! This type of faulty design partly explains why GM needs a taxpayer bail out both in the US and Canada. Faulty designs and cheap parts! Japenese cars don't seem to have these annoying engineering problems.

Once the heater control cable has been bent, indicated by no air flow through the defrost vent, the cable's got to be replaced.

Lubing the air flow mechanism high up inside the dash as well as moving aside anything rubing against it may help, but the real problem is a design that puts so much pressure on the cable that it eventually kinks. Since the air control settings are frequently changed, it'll inevitably happen again every few years.

The cable is cheap enough but it's a pain getting your hand up there to attach it. But I have large hands and minimal mechanical skills. As long as you have a shed to work in, a small bench the height of the door sill to support your back, along with patience and persistence, most guys should be able to fix it.

In a Canadian winter, once fixed, my wife can't thank me enough!

I can't imagine with cold spreading all over North America this winter how many Cavaliers/Sunbirds have a defroster not working! This type of faulty design partly explains why GM needs a taxpayer bail out both in the US and Canada. Faulty designs and cheap parts! Japenese cars don't seem to have these annoying engineering problems.


mine must not be bent enough to cause a non operable control switch. however 2 of the functions dont work which i dont mind as long as i have partial defrost and to move settings to floor other then face vents im ok with it, imo if one has at least defrost function working there is no need to mess with this cable, its tidious, and alot of taking apart and putting stuff back together with an end result of some sort of rattling which would drive me insane. GM's flaw of NOT tieing back that harness to not rest on the wheel is a quality issue tho that does not matter as cavs are no longer produced. i only posted a response and the cause as to why this cable fails. which is a simple cable harness resting on a wheel

... mine must not be bent enough to cause a non operable control switch....

Wonder if the Cobalt has the same HAV control setup! I first tried straightening the kink out of our cable without disassembly. Worked for awhile with only some functions, then defrost flow stopped again. I went as far as taking the dashpad off and looking from above and below - didn't find anything rubbing against that control wheel interferring with it's movement. Having said that, I've also read about a partial control problem matching yours, as well as a GM fix that replaced a gasket around one of the vent doors that interfere with air flow control. There could be 3 distinct problems with this setup: the bent/kinked cable like mine; your problem I've also read someone else had: and the vent gasket repair.

Replacing the cable requires taking the center console out (only 5 or 6 bolts), then laying on your back to jamb your hand up to the wheel to detach old/attach new the cable end. The cable is kept in place with a single small screwed down bracket. Connecting the other end to the back of the control knob was easy. Cramped but not a lot of taking stuff apart. Or I wouldn't be able to do it!

But sounds like you fixed what was ailing yours.

I've had GMs all my life and like both my Silverado and Cavalier, which has some great qualities - power and economy of the Ecotech engine, great handling, smoothness of drivetrain are some. Just wish there weren't the quality issues both my vehicles have. No excuse IMHO.

Wonder if the Cobalt has the same HAV control setup! I first tried straightening the kink out of our cable without disassembly. Worked for awhile with only some functions, then defrost flow stopped again. I went as far as taking the dashpad off and looking from above and below - didn't find anything rubbing against that control wheel interferring with it's movement. Having said that, I've also read about a partial control problem matching yours, as well as a GM fix that replaced a gasket around one of the vent doors that interfere with air flow control. There could be 3 distinct problems with this setup: the bent/kinked cable like mine; your problem I've also read someone else had: and the vent gasket repair.

Replacing the cable requires taking the center console out (only 5 or 6 bolts), then laying on your back to jamb your hand up to the wheel to detach old/attach new the cable end. The cable is kept in place with a single small screwed down bracket. Connecting the other end to the back of the control knob was easy. Cramped but not a lot of taking stuff apart. Or I wouldn't be able to do it!

But sounds like you fixed what was ailing yours.

I've had GMs all my life and like both my Silverado and Cavalier, which has some great qualities - power and economy of the Ecotech engine, great handling, smoothness of drivetrain are some. Just wish there weren't the quality issues both my vehicles have. No excuse IMHO.

thanks this is good info to have and know in case this things starts acting up again.


GM, Chrysler, Ford, if continued on its path with contract labor (unions) are doomed to fail in our current economy

1. minimal fuel efficiency when compared to foreign makers
2. cost to produce "lean" operation is impossible due to contract labor (unions)
3. = cheaply built cars = cheap sold cars at minimal profit are no profit


i have worked both in a GM factory and in a Toyota factory, let me say the operations are night and day, and anyone seeing it would say the same as i. the big 3 if continued on the path they are on, they are doomed.


do i blame workers of unions? no
do i blame unions? yes and no

Unions are there to protect employees of a said field of work. the big 3 have more unionized employees working then that of their foreign counterparts.

Walking into a Toyota plant, the only "real" Toyota employees you will see are QC inspectors, and managers, inspecting, inspecting, inspecting and more inspecting. The rest of the people which i estimate to about 85% of the work force is all third party workers and you want to talk "lean" operation.

while GM its way relaxed, like oops its the wrong screw ill take 20 min to fix,
this is only an example of how and why, the big 3 are in continued trouble.

Toyota on the other hand, if any QC inspector or manager finds "anything" out out of spec. the WHOLE operation is HALTED. in a instant there are 30-50 QC inspectors/managers investigating the cause/issue and quickly fix it, and operations do not restart until problem is fixed, so everyone makes sure they are not at fault to halt the operation line, you get looked down for halting the whole operation line. this is not the case in my experience with GM.

even tho Toyota, Honda, Mitsu is more mass produced today in the USA the quality will be the same due to low overhead of total actual employees third party labor, and super lean operations.

The CEO of GM once said we cant make profit on small cars.
it was told to him if you are in the auto industry and cant make a profit on "small" cars you should not be in business, however i tend to understand the CEO's position on his statement.


now who is really at fault for quality of a car?

imo get rid of the unions, they in today's time are useless for the worker and for the said industry.

Im sorry for out of topic post, but now before anyone says GM, FORD, Chrysler builds, sales SH$%y/CR2p cars. think before you speak, and maybe now have an understanding of why things are the way they are

do i blame workers of unions? no
do i blame unions? yes and no


Yup. Small world.

I've got a brother-in-law who's worked 20 years at the local GM engine plant in St. Catharines, Ontario, one of the best rated. Right now he's on an 8 week layoff.

I know Pat takes pride in the quality of his work - I see him come home real exhausted, I'm talking beat, then talks about his engines for hours. I know he takes pride in what he does. I have no doubt he's typical and all of his co-workers are doing their best for GM. Had I a choice I'd want one of his 5.3s in my Silverado assembled in Ft. Wayne, IN - but there's no way you can tell if your engine was made Stateside, Canada or Mexico. Engine blocks and fully assembled engines get shipped worldwide, some 5.3s even going to Holden in Australia.

Point I'm making is in IMHO the failure of the big 3 is shown in this blower control problem at issue here. Don't blame the auto workers - they work as hard and take just as much pride as any working man - and assembly line work is tough. And don't just blame the unions - I hear the labour union component is about $700 of the price of the car. But it's a combination of things - the HVAC blower control problem is only one issue to be expected in Cavaliers you don't see in Jap cars - like the strutt mounting plates I just changed at 60k, power window motors that go pretty quick, fuel pumps/sending units are a common problem, and you can expect the fuel control assembly to act up. These are mechanical design and quality part problems - the Jap cars just don't break.

Surveys show that GM ranks the worst in their relationships with suppliers. GM wants competitive bids to drive down costs then do charge backs on warranty claims with their suppliers who have small margins to begin with because of the competitive bidding. And the suppliers have no assurance they'll get the contract next time around. So their incentive is cutting costs too. So what kind of car do you get? Cheap engineering, cheap parts, problems too early.

Toyota has the best part supplier relationship survey rating. They work with their suppliers in R&D, build loyalty and focus on continual improvements.

So add all that in with what you say about assembly plants and this is why I'm on my back jambing my hand up their replacing my bent heater/defrost cable!

What's going to shake out of the recent Big 3 crash and burn, and what's going to happen to my brother-in-law, is a whole other story.

I think i can help.

I appreciate all the DIYers who bought replacement parts and took apart their dashboard, but I'm a simple man and I require simple solutions.

Agreeing with on guy, there is no vacuum actuation or whatever. The selector cable slides up a housing and mechanically selects where the heat blows from. If the cable is kinked, which is exactly the problem here, it wont slide up the housing, but will bend more.

So what I did was using needle nosed pliers, I forced that cable up into the housing. I now have a functional defrost or can even blow air at my feet after 3 years of having neither. Only issue is I cannot turn the selector all the way to the right or left. No biggie when it's a free fix in a cheapo car though.