Defroster probs

[phat46]

My daughter has an '04 Cavalier and the defroster won't work, plenty of heat, just won't come out the defroster vents. I have done some researching on the net and it seems this is a fairly cmmon thing for these cars; the control wire kinks because the defroster vent flap gets jambed closed by some foam that moves out of place. My question; has anyone here fixed this specific thing on a Cavalier? I have found instructions on how to remove the dash to get to the problem, but no ideas on how long it should take. the car can't be out of service for a whole dayMy daughter is a dispatcher and has to be to work by 4 p.m. I also have to see if the new control wire can be bought at a parts store of if it's a dealer only thing.

[parklane]

Good luck on that Joe. Why not let her drive your daily while you play with that? I am sure your vocabulary will increase  during this operation.  

[Fat Cat]

I have no experience with the Cavalier. But a fellow I work with has a Exquinox that had a blend door break. The dealer wanted $800 to repair it. It required removing the dash to access the heater box to remove the door. He was able to fix it by removing the glove box and cutting a hole in the heater box from that side. He removed the blend door, installed the new one and glued the whole thing back together. He said it was not hard, and works well. I am mentioning it to possibly help you with the time factor.

[rooster]

My daughter has an '04 Cavalier and the defroster won't work, plenty of heat, just won't come out the defroster vents. I have done some researching on the net and it seems this is a fairly cmmon thing for these cars; the control wire kinks because the defroster vent flap gets jambed closed by some foam that moves out of place. My question; has anyone here fixed this specific thing on a Cavalier? I have found instructions on how to remove the dash to get to the problem, but no ideas on how long it should take. the car can't be out of service for a whole dayMy daughter is a dispatcher and has to be to work by 4 p.m. I also have to see if the new control wire can be bought at a parts store of if it's a dealer only thing.

I havent done the fix! What was the out come of this? I was surprized to hear a car this new even had a "control by cable" in it.

heater treater has some videos on heater box chops, but not for Chevys!

Hope it worked out!

[phat46]

Got the repair done. there is NO need to remove the top or front of the dash, it doesn't help at all. We spent nearly six hours fixing it but most of that was unneccesarily removing and reinstalling the dash. the actual repair can be done in about a half hour fron the drivers side foot well..if you can squeeze under there, and you have a 5.5 mm nut driver    (I had an equivilant SAE size, 9/32 i think.) The cable design is really crappy, when the switch is all the way to defrost about an inch and a half of cable is pulled out of the sleeve, when you turn it back all the way the other direction the cable will bend and kink rather than go back into the outer housing. It will do it again, I have told my daughter to only go so far each direction and it shouldn't kink. The cable is really hard to find, I assume they sell out quickly......Luckily for me my daughter was able to reach up under the dash and get the upper end of the cable off and back on, my mitts were just to big to be able to do it easily.  

[rooster]

[quote="phat46, my mitts were just to big to be able to do it easily.  [/quote]

There's never any room where you want it to be behind these dashes!

I found out about this tool (HF) when I watched the video at Heater Treater> I asked Santa for it. (10.00)

Maybe you can get some oil down that cable casing!

[Okiedokie]

Do you have a part number for the tool Rooster? I looked on HF site but couldn't find. I would like to buy one. Joe

[rooster]

Do you have a part number for the tool Rooster? I looked on HF site but couldn't find. I would like to buy one. Joe

Looks like #19380
http://www.harborfreight.com/ratcheting-squeeze-wrench-kit-93180.html

[Okiedokie]

Great, thanks. Good to see it is an instore item.