Air only blows on face of passenger

[Pleides]

My 05 wagon seems to have had an issue with a little noise, almost like a bubbling noise, when you shut the car off after driving from the passenger side. The A/C blows cold, but the footwell doesn't get any air, windshield only very slightly. Your face is the only thing being cooled off on that side. Prior research seems to indicate a climate vent actuator. Anybody replaced one of these without taking the entire dash out? Wondering if it's something to replace when doing a cabin filter (and taking the lower passenger part of the dash out - relatively simple in comparison) or if the entire dash needs removed.

 

Driver's side is unaffected, however the center blend door actuator seems to be acting up from time to time too.... maybe the dash should come out anyways.

[csaari]

Yep, definitely sounds like the vent mode actuator is shot. Not too bad to replace, no need to take out the dash. Probably not a bad idea to do it at the same time as replacing the cabin filter. (I installed Subaru's "hack job" cabin filter access retrofit kit years ago, so I can replace my filter in about 5 minutes, but I think you have to take off the same dash pieces to get to the filter and actuator.....) I replaced my actuator a couple of years ago, and found this video to be very helpful:

 

 

There is only the one vent mode actuator, which controls where the air goes for driver and passenger. This seems to be the most common one to fail. Then there is a driver's side temperature or blend actuator, as well as a passenger side one. The driver's side one is the one I think you have to take out the dash to replace, although it seems like recently someone did it with the dash in place. Lucky for me, the vent mode actuator is the only one I've had fail so far.... knock on wood.

 

There are multiple threads on here about replacing the various actuators, here are a few in case you haven't seen them already:

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/vents-not-functioning-properly-266880.html

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/sound-inside-dash-turn-off-car-190728.html

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/bubbling-noise-after-turn-off-cari-227004.html

Edited August 16, 2021 by csaari