2007 Ram 1500. A/C cold on right side, warm on drivers side

What kind of crap is that ???
If the truck were right hand drive, I'd be okay with this. Anyone know what could be the cause of this?

I bet you broke a blend door in the HVAC system.

Do an online search for 2007 Ram blend door repair and see what you have to deal with.

Thanks. The only responses that I have found pertain to cold air on the drivers side with warm air on the right. That is the opposite of my condition but I suppose the cause may be the same.

cold on driver, warm on passenger is usually low charge. The opposite (warm L, cool R) is broken air door more common on the dual zone systems.

Pull the dash and then the box then replace all of the doors and actuators. Save yourself the future aggravation and fix it now. If I remember all of the parts will run you around 5-700.00.

????

These guys sell replacement blend doors, but look at the video on the bottom of the page about diagnosing the problem on our Dodge Rams...

https://heatertreater.net/dodge-ram-02-08/

Yes that right as I remember when some were low on freon doing what J-body said. I believe there may be a TSB about the air door problem as I remember fixing a few of them. I left the dealer in 2011 so its been a while since I worked on any. Ron

I took the truck in for the air bag recall and had them look at the A/C. I doubt they did anything except look at the mileage and assume that everything was worn out. The estimate: $2184.
I'll pass, thanks.

It is warming up so this is becoming more important. I have found a few YouTube videos with a variety of "fixes". One guy removed his glove box and blower motor and reached up to remove a broken door. Afterwards he showed a great improvement in airflow. I wonder though if the door was blocking flow from the drivers side and just redirecting it to the right. I don't have any "Dual Zone" function that I know of. There are no left/right options, just icons depicting arrows to the head, the feet, a recirculating icon and a defroster position. I suppose that I can just start taking stuff apart and hope that I find something obvious. I learned about engines by taking them apart and putting them back together...

How about details on the estimate. What were they replacing?

Even though you don't have the dual zone temperature control the box is still set up for it, just missing a few pieces and the controller.

The YouTube video you watched was for the recirculation/fresh air door replacement, not the blend air door.

I had an 04 Hemi Ram 1500 and had the issue of no heat to one side also. I removed the blower motor and reached up inside and pulled out a broken blend door and it fixed my problem. Not sure what the door does but worked fine without it.

I think when the dealer service guys saw the age and miles on my truck, they didn't even bother to actually inspect the system. Friggin hacks...Not all high mileage vehicles are money pits
The service "advisor" said they suggested all new actuators, doors, sensors and a recharge of the system even though the air blows quite cold on the right side.
The drivers side airflow is about half of the right side and not cold at all.
Every time I start it up and turn the fan nob on, a "thunk/fwap" sound occurs from the glove box area. My guess is that some type of door gets moved by the force of the fan. Tomorrow I am going to try removing the fan and take a look. If there is a broken door up there, it obviously is not doing its job anyway.
Some mention that by removing the broken door, the truck loses the ability to move outside air. If the door is broken, it isn't sealing off anything anyway.

Well, I see you had no problem immediately calling them hacks and jumping to conclusions that you obviously know zero about. I know jumping to conclusions is a favorite past time around Moparts but don't you guys ever get tired from all that jumping? It's a CYA thing. If you are going to pull the dash and the case to replace a door you may want to do them all at the same time because two months down the road another one breaks then you have to do it all over again. The dash has to come out to get the case out so it's a rather big job. The customer will always say "Why didn't you replace that when you were in there 2 months ago." You aren't going to want to pay that labor again are you? No of course not, you just paid it two months ago, that's why you get an estimate to replace everything in there. So now they are the bad guys again but in reality it's you the consumer that has driven us techs to do this. I don't want to fix it for free the second time. You can't win any more.

The system has to be discharged to get the case out and I can assure you, it's not full now unless it's recently been charged. So that is why you get to pay for the recharge.

I do understand your point. The problem that I see is that most dealers rarely ever consider that some owners are not swimming in cash. They will sometimes just jump to the nuclear option. I don't see $2200 to be reasonable.
I did not jump to conclusions either. The service guy did not even present a written estimate, he just rattled off a series of parts and said a price. I told him it still blew cold from the right and he just shook his head.

With the radio out, I can see that the left and right side vents are not connected. This makes me suspect that the A/C and heater box was designed to accommodate a dual zone system even if the truck isn't optioned for it. I am curious if the thunk/fwap I hear is one of the 2 connected doors inside moving independent of the other. The doors I speak of block off the heater core so I wonder if one actually does block it and the other is not.

A good advisor would have explained the situation to you. Trust me we don't want to have to give estimates like that. We know we aren't going to get the job but even if you explain it to people and give them the option when it does break again guess what? Either me or the dealership is eating that repair so we just can't do it anymore.

I think you have a broken blend air door, you may also have a broken recirc/fresh air door as well. They are both common. You could always have the a/c system sucked out and pull the dash and case yourself.

I agree that better communication would have helped. When someone makes their point in a more tactful manner, they have so much more to gain.

The door above the fan motor works. The door in the middle (From heat to cold) works too. I get heat from both sides and on the floor but cold A/C only from the right.

"I think you have a broken blend air door, you may also have a broken recirc/fresh air door as well. They are both common. You could always have the a/c system sucked out and pull the dash and case yourself."


That might be a way to go. Thank you.

Well, guess what?
I took the truck to a trusted independent shop yesterday. They told me prior that they have rarely seen an A/C job run close to $2000. They said the highest they see is usually under $1500. I expected them to call today asking for authorization to fix it for that same number. At 11:15, they called to say that it was done and the bill was $162.
Whaaat ???
The system only had .36 lbs of refrigerant in there. They found a leaky schrader valve and replaced it and added the 1.62 OEM amount of refrigerant. The actuators are fine, the blend doors, fan and switches are fine. The A/C blows cold air from both sides again.
Yes, the guys at the Dealership were hacks. Maybe you could call them cheats, jerks, ripoff scammers, whatever. They never even looked at the truck. I found my invoice and the $2184 is scribbled in pen, not typed out. No itemized list of "needed parts" to replace, just a lazy effort on the part of a greedy, unscrupulous employee of a service department that I will never visit again.

Bingo

Uh, yeah but mine WAS warm on the left... the drivers side.

Not trying to rain on your parade but I was told more then once about the leaky schrader valve when the real source of the leak wasn`t found.

If nothing else, for a low price, I have some cool air for awhile.

Where is this schrader valve located, inside or outside the cab? What does it look like?

Schrader valve is the charging port and it's core. Tire valve stem is a schrader valve of sort.

Thank you, though it was a big gizmo. My 06 was just recharged and it cools on driver side and hot on pass, so I guess it's low charged. Back to the shop.

01 on up we saw a lot of leaks out of the front compressor seal. Hard to detect as it leaks as a vapor and often very slow. After a couple of recharges you can often take brake clean and spray the front of the compressor and you'll often find it drips out in the bright green hue (blacklight/yellow specs) indicating you might have found your issue. Slow leaks on hvac suck!!

After what we both said I surely would have had the freon checked in the system first. Heck the dealer I worked at we got like 1.5 to suck all the freon out which tells how much is in it. Then it also included us adding dye and looking for leaks after we filled the system with the proper amount of freon. The cust price was about $139. for that. If we found no leaks then we had the cust come back in a week or two and we checked to see if we could see any dye and find the slow leak. To replace the shrader valve takes about 20 seconds after the freon is pulled out. Cant say we did not tell you as after what J-body and I said I would have had the system charge checked. I just hope the schrader valve is not your only leak. Ron

The work order showed that they did an evac, tested with the dye, found the leak at the valve then recharged.
Almost 2 weeks now, the A/C still blows cold like it should. If it fails, I will be honest with everyone about it. I was ready to spend the approx $1500 that the independent shop would have charged, IF it was necessary. I was also considering doing the job myself. I would have had the system evacuated and recharged at the shop but at home I would have pulled the dash and air box to replace the doors inside.

It takes no brains to just replace parts instead of diagnosing the problem. It doesn't matter what you go in for, it's what is done nowadays. I hear these horror stories almost everyday from the mechanic next door. He stays very busy because he knows how to figure out what's wrong. He told me the Dodge dealership just went to $152 an hour and got rid of the old guys.

That is terrible. LOOK at the fancy styling and decor of these new car dealerships. It is the SERVICE department and parts department that carries the weight of the store. Vehicle sales are icing on the cake.

5 weeks and counting, the A/C is still working great.

I always tell my family and customers, that on all the newer cars, I advise everyone to turn the BLOWER FAN SPEED to OFF- BEFORE moving any other nobs on your heater- a/c system.

When you have the fan blowing, and you select either hotter or colder, or any other position for your airflow. You slam the doors into their next position. Eventually , they are going to brake, ESPECIALLY if the fan is on HIGH SPEED!! If you turn the fan off 1st, it makes it so much easier on the doors and actuators!!!!!!!

You never use to brake these doors on your old cars, that were controlled by cables, instead of the newer electric actuated doors.

Brilliant engineering!!!

Thank you for that advice. I appreciate the heads up.