My brother and I are working an a 1996 Stratus for a family friend who is going through hard financial times due to health issues. The heater in the car works fine (blows hot air) but it is stuck in vent mode. The defroster or the floor heat mode does not work. Is the mode selection knob attached to a cable or is it electronic on this vehicle? If it is electronic, any thought as to the cause of the other heater modes not working. Thanks

If they are set up anything like the Neons then they are cable operated doors. If so then the cable could be off on the back of the control head or at the heater box. The doors inside the box are probably plastic. When it's on the defrost mode it will only be on vent mode. That's the way my Neon works. Once you switch over from defrost to any of the other fuctions then you can rotate the knob from vent to recirc.

IIRC they are electric motors. Look up under the dash on the drivers side and you should be able to see a couple of motors and the cams/gears and actuator levers.

The last one that I worked on that did that needed and new control head.

I have not had time to get into it yet but it almost seems like the knob on the control head turns real easy as if a cable is off on one end or the other but, if it is electric it will turn easily anyway.
I'll be sure to let you guys know so, someone else with this issue can save some effort.

I had a similar problem on my 95 Stratus.There were several long drawn out fixes on the internet,but the readers digest version was to remove the connector from the control switch and GENTLY squeeze the female portions of the connector so that they will grip the male portions better. They are pretty small,and a pain to do, but it solved my problem. I guess it improved the connection enough to function and best of all was free.

I checked the computer this morning and your car uses cables for both recirc. and temp control. On the neons there are gears inside the control head that rotate when you turn the knob. If it's the same it could have broke right there or the cable has come off at either end.

Rallye73 Thanks for looking that up for me it is a big help. I don't have a repair manual and Thanks to all who responded. I'll let you all know what the problem was.

Sorry if I had misled you. Yes the older ones are cable operated and the 2001 and up have accuators motors. More than likely you have a broken knob like Mr. P said.