1999 deville base version heater and other things

[Richard S]

We just returned from a trip to PA this weekend. The temps were in the low 20's on the return leg, and the passenger side didn't seem to be as warm as the drivers side. My wife complained of cold feet all the way home, even after turning on the passenger side heater control and setting it as far as it would go to the hot side.
I would have expected the car to warm up more than it did. I was comfortable driving, and did not detect any problem with the heater at all.
Anything special I should be looking for, or is this just the nature of the beast in cold weather? I've owned the Deville for 3 years now, and this is the first time the wife has complained about being cold.
We averaged 29.4 MPG for the trip of 1060 miles, hills, town driving, rush hour traffic in Phillie and at the legal speed limit on the road!

Richard in eastern, NC

[Ranger]

Does the passenger side temp control seem to have any effect? Could be a sticky air mix door or actuator. Run the temp up to max (90) and back down to min (60) to exercise it and see if that helps. Also pull the DTC's.

[Richard S]

Ranger,

I spent some time on the forum today searching for similar situations, and came up with just that thought of excersizing the actuators (which I wasn'r aware of before). Ran the temps up and down about 10 times, with a wait in between, and lo and behold, there is hot ait on the passenger side now. She was right though, there was nothing but cold air before. The driver can't tell whats going on in the passenger area, unless someone voices their discomfort. If all keeps working this winter, I'll change the actuator out this summer. If not, then iy looks like it will happen much sooner.

Thanks Ranger,

Richard in eastern NC>

[Ranger]

Check it out closely before replacing the actuator. It might just be a sticky door.

[Richard S]

Ranger,

The passenger side temp control in the coldest position has warm air coming out by the footwell. When it is turned to the max heat (after pushing it down to turn it on) the heat turns to cold air at the outlet on passenger side. Never noticed that before. Turn it back to cold and the heat comes back. Hmm, it appears to work backwards. There is heat coming out now, with the passenger heat control turned off, and until I can remove the glove box and lower panel to see what is happening, it will stay that way. BTW, this was the first time the passenger heat control has been used since I've owned the car. We've never needed it before.

Richard

[Ranger]

That control will only vary the heat on the passengers side by about 4 degrees either way I believe, so don't expect too much out of it. From what you say, it sounds like the actuator may be bad.