A/c Only 1 Vent Out Of 5 Will Blow Cold Air

tkdoa024 · July 12, 2014

Hi everyone, I have a 93' LS 400. When I bought the car from the second owner almost 2 years ago, the A/C worked perfectly. After a few months the a/c didn't want to work properly anymore.. I bought the canister to refill but I was told by a few people that it was already full. So in the front, only 1 vent blows put cold air while another 1 blows moderate cold air while the far left and far right including the back that's under the middle console vents blow warm air. I don't want to take it to a mechanic because I don't have the money to spend if it can be an easy fix. Can anyone please help me put with any suggestions or advice? Thank you so much!

landar · July 12, 2014

Welcome Kayla.

There are a number of what are called "blend doors" in your car and it sounds like one of those is not working correctly. There is a little servo motor in each unit and sometimes a failure occurs and the door gets stuck in one position.

It sounds like your situation is the result of not directing cool air to those other vents because of a stuck door.

Is it an easy fix? Probably not unless you are fairly well versed in taking things apart and locating the source of the problem.

I have taken the servo assembly apart before and cleaned the feedback traces to get the servo working again so sometimes they can be repaired.

billydpowell · July 12, 2014

I agree with Randall, you have a blend door that is not working properly. the AC unit could not cause this problem. I have never heard of doing this, but close the vents that are not cooling and see what happens... (good luck)

tkdoa024 · July 13, 2014

Thank you both for your advice! I actually have tried to shut the other vents, it just pushes all the warm air to the vent that blows cold air, so that as well becomes warm air. I only know how to do simple maintenance on cars such as oil changes, brakes and rotors, tubes if simple and tires.. But this sounds complicated and I can't trust a friend who works on simple cars such as civics and integras. I guess I will have to take this to a shop. =( Goodness. But I really do appreciate all your help!

landar · July 13, 2014

You are welcome Kayla. I would recommend taking it to a good AC shop in your area. They see this stuff all of the time. If they seem puzzled or their prices seem high, try another shop. It does not hurt to get a second opinion.

It is not really a super hard job, it is just that there are a lot of plastic pieces to disassemble in the dash area jut to get into finding the culprit. It can be a time consuming and tedious job.