2016 Dodge Charger climate control is spazmatic

[wwillson]

The climate control in our 2016 Charger seems to have a bad temperature sensor or some other problem. There are times when you want less cooling and you'll have to turn the control to "High" before the AC will stop blowing freezing air on you, or times when you want heat and you'll have to turn the control to "High" just to get the AC to shut off.

I hate to take the car to the dealer and pay dealer prices, if the problem is just a sensor that's easy to replace. Any ideas?

 

[Rand]

if its the same climate control as my jeep (dual sided) its based off what it thinks the temp in the car is.. and it can be very annoying.

I wish I could just set it to 80f and have it blow 80f air.

but no you set it to 66f and it will still blow hot air.. then set it to 74 and it will still be full cold air.. depending on what it thinks the conditions are inside the car.

and the 100% random A/C use is annoying too. the other night its 66f out and i have it on low/low enjoying outside air through the vents and it decides its humid(wasnt) and turns on the air at full cold. requiring me to either turn it off and open a window, or set it on mid 70's so its not full cold air
then after 5-10min it will be blowing air so warm need to turn it down again.

if this is progress.. I'll take the old 80's hot/cold slider and fan knob.

the system works fine when its HOT out , or when its Cold out.. but inbetween temps it does not do a very good job.

 

[Chris142]

Blend door actuator.

 

[wwillson]

Blend door actuator.

Do you know if I can get to it without taking the dash apart, which I'm not interested in doing?

Reading symptoms of a bad blend door actuator, it seems the main behavior is that you'll get one side blowing hot and one side blowing cold. We don't have that problem. Our issue is exactly what Rand described above.

 

[Chris142]

There is one above the gas pedal that fails often. I am unable to fit under there. I hired a skinny kid from the shop next door to do the last one.

 

[Trav]

The climate control in our 2016 Charger seems to have a bad temperature sensor or some other problem. There are times when you want less cooling and you'll have to turn the control to "High" before the AC will stop blowing freezing air on you, or times when you want heat and you'll have to turn the control to "High" just to get the AC to shut off.

I hate to take the car to the dealer and pay dealer prices, if the problem is just a sensor that's easy to replace. Any ideas?

A scantool with the capability to diagnose the system will tell you what is going on and what part is out of spec or defective. Something like this (never bought or tried this particular one) may be just what you need. I am not advocating knock offs or anything of the sort but some quite well. Do not load the parts cannon on this one, it could be something like a bad ground to a sensor or god knows.

https://www.cnautotool.com/goods-51...Tech+MicroPod+2+Support+Multi-Languages+.html

 

[OVERKILL]

A scantool with the capability to diagnose the system will tell you what is going on and what part is out of spec or defective. Something like this (never bought or tried this particular one) may be just what you need. I am not advocating knock offs or anything of the sort but some quite well. Do not load the parts cannon on this one, it could be something like a bad ground to a sensor or god knows.

https://www.cnautotool.com/goods-51...Tech+MicroPod+2+Support+Multi-Languages+.html

Need an account to use Witech 1 or 2 in my experience. But that's the good stuff, true OEM diagnostic unit will give you access to everything including updates, TSB's, recalls...etc.

 

[Trav]

Need an account to use Witech 1 or 2 in my experience. But that's the good stuff, true OEM diagnostic unit will give you access to everything including updates, TSB's, recalls...etc.

Yep, the chicoms usually have a work around with this stuff. Surprisingly some of it works real well.

 

[OVERKILL]

Yep, the chicoms usually have a work around with this stuff. Surprisingly some of it works real well.

I expect one could definitely get a workaround to work for Witech 1, since it is an installed piece of software. You'd have to login for the update side of things but the rest of it, the diagnostic stuff, should all work in such a scenario. On the other hand WiTech 2 uses an actual FCA web portal, so you are up the proverbial creek trying to use that without a username/password

 

[JC1]

The blend door actuator on the passenger side In the caravan acts up once and while.

I found a video on YouTube that suggested to give the actuator a couple of taps with a screwdriver or small hammer. That seems to unstick it and get it working normally. Luckily it's easy to access with just pulling the carpet back in the passenger foot well.

 

[Trav]

I expect one could definitely get a workaround to work for Witech 1, since it is an installed piece of software. You'd have to login for the update side of things but the rest of it, the diagnostic stuff, should all work in such a scenario. On the other hand WiTech 2 uses an actual FCA web portal, so you are up the proverbial creek trying to use that without a username/password

Same a GM and others now.

 

[Skippy722]

All 3 of my Mopars that had ATC did that, and it drove me nuts. It’s trying to get to a temperature, not blow a consistent one. So you set it to say 70F, it’s going to try and hit that temp and adjust output temperature accordingly. I wish they’d just blow 70F air.

Or all 3 of them were/are messed up and I didn’t know it... lol

 

[wwillson]

The final verdict is a bad sensor. There is a sun light intensity sensor, part number 68230114AB, that is part of the auto temperature control system. We hooked my friends diagnostic computer up to the car and could deduce that it was likely this sensor. I had no idea how much live data can be seen from the OBD port.

With the new sensor, the climate control computer no longer thinks the sun is beating down at high intensity. Total cost $40.45 and I'm very pleased with that!!

 

[wwillson]

I thought I was done, not so much. The new sunlight sensor fixed the raging air conditioner problem, but the system still wouldn't give much heat until the heater control was turned to "HI", then it would cook you. The other sensor is the cabin air temperature sensor part # 55111178AC. I replaced this sensor and the system now correctly gives heat in the temperature and volume it should. What is the probability of having two bad sensors at the same time?

The cabin air temperature sensor is under panel close to the driver's right knee. The sensor is actually very easy to change, believe it or not. Remove the side cover by prying it straight out away from the dash, remove the two screws on the left side holding the lower panel to the dash, then carefully pry the lower panel out. The entire process took less than five minutes.

 

[doitmyself]

Thank you for supporting Lithuania! And thanks for the follow up, which helps everyone out. Guessing that to be a $400+ repair at the dealer.

 

[wwillson]

Guessing that to be a $400+ repair at the dealer.

Probably more than that. I asked the dealer when I was there to get a recall done and they wanted $165 just to look at it. I'll bet what cost me $90 in parts would have cost close to $750 in parts and labor.

 

[OVERKILL]

Excellent work! Glad to see it was an inexpensive, and relatively easy, DIY.

 

[JC1]

Nice job, Wwillson where did you get the parts from?

 

[wwillson]

Nice job, Wwillson where did you get the parts from?

Local Dodge dealer - went with OEM

 

[wwillson]

The automatic control works very well now, really the first time it's worked correctly since we bought the car with 13,000 miles.