kenchan Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I searched a few times but did not see any posts on this. My 06 legacy wagon (non-GT) with about 20k miles recently stopped blowing through the lower vents...the a/c works, the fan is working... seems like the flap inside the unit is either frozen or just broke. started about a week ago. Any ideas what to look for? unfortunately i do not have access to a garage right now as my weekend cars are hibernating. it's frikkin 6F this morning with windchill of subzero and no heat from the lower vents = cold feet. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slade Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Mine has a similar problem. If I turn the dial to dash/floor vents, I'd say 90% blows from the dash vents and barely a draft from the floor vents. I've got a service appointment next week for a different problem and think I'll have them take a look at it while it's there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shtbxr22 Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 if it's auto climate control, it's probably the motor that controls the mixing door. If it's manual climate control, the cable could be binding, or out of adjustment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted February 4, 2007 Author Share Posted February 4, 2007 i thought even the manual ones were electronically controlled... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vetterin Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Mine has a similar problem. If I turn the dial to dash/floor vents, I'd say 90% blows from the dash vents and barely a draft from the floor vents. I've got a service appointment next week for a different problem and think I'll have them take a look at it while it's there. Looks like that makes 3 of us as my 06 does exactly the same thing. The 2 far side vents and defroster blow most of the air while the floor vents hardly do anything. I've tried closing the side vents thinking more air would come out the floor, but even that doesn't seem to help. Let us know what the dealer says as this IS aggravating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vetterin Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 I was just looking through the vacation guide and it looks as though that is the way it is supposed to be. Air will always come out the defroster vents and looking at the ductwork, the floor vents seems to be very, very small. I am going to check the rear floor vent flow tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slade Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 Looks like that makes 3 of us as my 06 does exactly the same thing. The 2 far side vents and defroster blow most of the air while the floor vents hardly do anything. I've tried closing the side vents thinking more air would come out the floor, but even that doesn't seem to help. Let us know what the dealer says as this IS aggravating. I dropped the car of today and when I explained about the lower vents he said that he's gotten quite a few complaints about them not working well. It seems like it's the way they are designed, but he'll check mine out to make sure there really isn't anything wrong. This is my 3rd Subaru and the other two had no problems getting air to the floor. You'd think they'd know how to make it work in the Legacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slade Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Dealer called today and said the vents were working properly, it's just a poor design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vetterin Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Dealer called today and said the vents were working properly, it's just a poor design. If you can look at the diagram of the ductwork (with all the diverter flaps) you will agree that design is teh suck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul G. Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Mine too, it's just the design of the car. It is my main complaint about the car, so actually I guess I'll just live with it. P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 guys, thanks for the responses.... i'll check mine out too later on. wife hasn't complained much lately so not sure. i rarely drive the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobE Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 i had a problem with my heater last winter. http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29682 http://newenglandsubarus.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted February 15, 2007 Author Share Posted February 15, 2007 guys, thanks for the responses.... i'll check mine out too later on. wife hasn't complained much lately so not sure. i rarely drive the car. i took the Legacy out a few days ago when it snowed pretty bad here in chicago. there wasn't much warm air coming from the lower vents. is this the same way on the dual climate control cars? Mine's a 2.5L SE so has the manual vent switches. these vent switches are electronic, not mechanical (no cables). why i ask is that i might upgrade to the GT LE later on but if it's the same way with the dual climate control cars, i dont want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted April 9, 2007 Author Share Posted April 9, 2007 i was playing around with the vent selector yesterday (hadn't driven the legacy for some time) and heard no thunk/gate movement when i switched from "upper vent" , "upper/lower" , nor "lower" vent modes. i hear thunk/gate movement between the defrost and non-defrost modes. also between re-circulate air and non-recirulate. i think the gate motor's dead. is there a fuse dedicated to that one motor or just a general 'A/C' fuse? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted April 9, 2007 Author Share Posted April 9, 2007 is the upper vent/lower vent motor (actuator) harness in this pict by dimil? i want to see if the connection went bad. thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 thanks to a member at nasioc, he sent me files of the service manual showing where the floor/upper vent gate and actuator was. i decided to take my car apart and see what was going on. to my surprise, the mechanical design of this gate is a pos. im no ME, but can tell wat a good and bad design is. bascially what's happening is that when you select the full defrost, the lever that turns the floor/upper vent gate locks up. it's like your elbow bending outward past your full extension and can't get back. when it locks up, the gate itself gets pushed into its own bracket holding the actuator. bad bad design... i pushed the gate back into its original position and played around with the vent selector while i was looking up behind the glove box. upper only, upper and lower, lower only, and defrost lower works fine. it's only when you go to full defrost the thing locks up. so i took the hvac switchbox apart and put a screw in the switch itself to lock out full defrost. yah, i could take her in for warranty and have my dealer put more damage to my car like last time and have it break down again in a couple of months... or fix it myself and live with having lower vent control and some defrost. i put everything back together and wow, the lower vent actually blows quite a bit of air. plus, the upper vent blows much harder too. if your car's not blowing much air from the floor, chances are your gate is stuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacy_y_tu Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 Glad to hear you fixed your problem. I have no complaints at all about the floor vents or the HVAC sytem at all ( I have a GT) In fact I have really grown to love the auto HVAC system. I think it works really well ....once I understood how it functions thanks to somebody's write-up on here. When I bought the car I was thinking what a gimmick, but now I wouldn't want to go back to a manual system . Perhaps the GT system is different than the SE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenchan Posted July 3, 2007 Author Share Posted July 3, 2007 Glad to hear you fixed your problem. I have no complaints at all about the floor vents or the HVAC sytem at all ( I have a GT) In fact I have really grown to love the auto HVAC system. I think it works really well ....once I understood how it functions thanks to somebody's write-up on here. When I bought the car I was thinking what a gimmick, but now I wouldn't want to go back to a manual system . Perhaps the GT system is different than the SE. it could be different, but typically the mechanicals (duct work, etc) are the same and it's more about the sensors and automatic controls itself on the switch box...but since you guys have dual climate controls it might be totally different. i dont know how long that gate had been stuck since i gave my wife the keys almost like a week after buying the car. she had to do lots of miles for work and didn't seem smart to let her drive my leased civic. she's not much of a complainer so i only noticed it on the weekends i drove the car something was wrong. anyway, im glad i got it working again. and i recently got my legacy back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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