'07 Nissan Versa - AC only blowing cold on passenger side

[snoopy7548]

I've got a problem with my 2007 Nissan Versa. I've noticed that when I'm driving to work in the morning (car has sat inside my garage all night, relatively cool outside at 65-75 degrees), the AC seems to work fairly well. But when I'm driving in the daytime or home from work (car sat outside all day, outdoor temp is 80-90 degrees), my AC just doesn't cool the cabin.

After a few days of putting up with this, I decided to investigate further and found that the passenger-side vents are blowing cold air while the drivers side vents seem to be blowing cabin-temperature or a bit warmer than cabin-temp air. No noticeable difference in the volume of air being blown, and all the vents are open. A co-worker suggested a stuck blend door, so I tried turning the knobs and listening for the door to open/close and that seems fine, but it's hard to tell.

I think my next step is to either remove the dash and investigate the blend door (maybe it is stuck, but I really don't want to do that) or buy one of those AC recharge kits.

I was wondering if anyone here had any similar issues and what the problem was, or if there are any suggestions. Thanks.

 

[herm0016]

does switching from recirculate to outside air and back change the behavior?

 

[mindless1]

If one side is blowing cold enough then it's doubtful that you need it recharged. If you do it's usually due to a leak that needs fixed first.

Yes it's probably a blend door, either the shaft on the door where it connects to the actuator has broken apart (which Doorman might sell a repair kit for), or the actuator itself has failed. They don't typically get stuck without one of these two being the cause.

 

[razel]

Perhaps you have dual climate controls? I too would check the blender doors if it has a cabin air filter. For Nissan's of that era, it's just above the cabin air filter. May not be a bad idea anyway to change or clean the cabin air filter... if it has one.

 

[snoopy7548]

does switching from recirculate to outside air and back change the behavior?

Nope, same behavior. Tried it this morning and on the way home from work.

If one side is blowing cold enough then it's doubtful that you need it recharged. If you do it's usually due to a leak that needs fixed first.

Yes it's probably a blend door, either the shaft on the door where it connects to the actuator has broken apart (which Doorman might sell a repair kit for), or the actuator itself has failed. They don't typically get stuck without one of these two being the cause.

The passenger side seems to be blowing the proper temperature, although I haven't measured it; it feels as cold as it should. I don't want to try to recharge my system if it's not needed, so I'll check out the blend door.

Perhaps you have dual climate controls? I too would check the blender doors if it has a cabin air filter. For Nissan's of that era, it's just above the cabin air filter. May not be a bad idea anyway to change or clean the cabin air filter... if it has one.

Ah, thanks. I changed the cabin air filter last year... maybe I screwed something up. I'll check it this weekend. No fancy dual climate controls here!

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

[Slacker]

If the heat is good from both sides you can eliminate the blend door issue.
I have heard of issues with dual control systems not cooling on drivers side due to a minor leak in the system, if a recharge fixes it temporarily then you have a leak, the example I heard was an oring on a compressor shaft leaking on some Toyotas.

 

[razel]

In an 03 G35 and 15 Q40, the AC setups had the same setup. Blower (fan) at the bottom, then cabin air filter middle, blender doors up top. Two doors, back and front. When you press the recirculate button you should them move. And yes if you get any musty smell, that's the place to clean it. Use long pipe cleaners at your local arts store to get to the evaps and the blower fins.

 

[mindless1]

In an 03 G35 and 15 Q40, the AC setups had the same setup. Blower (fan) at the bottom, then cabin air filter middle, blender doors up top. Two doors, back and front. When you press the recirculate button you should them move. And yes if you get any musty smell, that's the place to clean it. Use long pipe cleaners at your local arts store to get to the evaps and the blower fins.

You're mentioning two infinitis but do you know this to be the case for a nissan versa? On many automobiles the recirculate door (and which ducts blow the air) is vac operated, not an electrical motor, because it's a binary open/shut door instead of steps like you'd have with a blend door.

Further those are most likely different doors so seeing them move doesn't tell you what's happening with the others. Well, not seeing them move due to a vac leak could help pinpoint why another vac door isn't working, help to indicate that the leak is probably before the center console or in it.

If the heat is good from both sides you can eliminate the blend door issue.

This may not always be true. If it is the blend door, to cause that symptom would mean it's letting at least some if not diverting all air through the heater core. If the climate control is set to a mode that doesn't run the A/C compressor then you might get near the same heat out of it. On older vehicles it was common that some "vent" modes didn't run the compressor but some newer ones may not run it in even more modes or temperatures to eek out a slightly higher fuel economy.

It would be easier to visualize if we had a HVAC diagram covering this generation of Versa.

 

[snoopy7548]

I crawled under my dash today and couldn't find anything mechanically wrong with the blend door (referred to as the "Air Mix Door" in the service manual). It's controlled by a cable/rod attached to the temperature dial, so no electronic actuator. I verified that the blend door works as it should by watching it fully close/open as I turned the temperature dial to the extremes. While I had part of the dash removed, I took a look inside both middle vents (driver and passenger side) and I could see the door opening/closing as I adjusted the temperature dial.

Not too sure where to go from here. If I have a couple of hours I might try to rip apart my dash a bit more, but without taking the whole thing out (not really prepared to do that), there's very little that I have access to; I had to lay on my back across the passenger seat with my head all the way up nearly against the firewall to even get a glimpse of the blend door (this was before I realized I could just peer inside the vents)! Good thing I'm relatively young and flexible.

Here's a diagram of the AC system:

 

[mindless1]

Hmm, I was hoping for more of a route diagram as all those parts in the pic look reasonably drawn but guessing how they all fit together is beyond what I can do from that pic. They're not aligned with how they fit nor any arrows or anything.

The pic I saw of a Versa console shows 4 vents, 1 driver side, 2 center, and 1 passenger side. I can only guess that there are ducts not in the picture that connect all those pieces and think your problem might best be handled in a forum specific to Nissan Versas, but I don't know which one is most popular... you really only need one with that One Guy on earth who owns a few and knows everything about them, lol. Finding that forum for your model of vehicle is pure gold.

 

[snoopy7548]

I can look through the service manual again, but I don't recall seeing a vent diagram. Yeah, I agree the assembly diagram isn't drawn too well, but once you get a look under the dash it sort of makes sense.

I talked to a couple of co-workers and they had some suggestions. In no particular order:

-Poor seal on blend door (it looked like it was making a good seal, but it was hard to see, this should be relatively easy to check)
-Leaking heater water valve; one side of the core could be warming
-Bring it to the dealer, they won't charge for diagnostics if they can't find the problem (yeah right... they'll spend three days diagnosing it and find a "problem", then I'm out $2-3k)
-Low on refrigerant, so only one side of evaporator is getting cold (this one seems reasonable, and may be a last resort)

I mentioned to them that I noticed when it was really cold out, my heater would put out fairly weak heat, especially when I had the blower at full blast. That spurred some other suggestions for that problem:
-Clogged heater core (can flush it, but that's a PITA)
-Bring it to the dealer (same person as before)
-Air in coolant system
-Bring it to the dealer, they don't charge you if they can't figure it out (guess who...)

Anyways, thanks for the replies, everyone. I'm going to post on a couple of Versa forums. If I remember to, I'll report back if/when the problem is diagnosed and fixed.

 

[boomerang]

-Leaking heater water valve; one side of the core could be warming

This is what I am starting to suspect. The valve is staying open and warming the air. For reasons that will more than likely never be understood, because it has to do with how the air is flowing through the dash ducting, the cooler air is discharging on one side and the warmer on the other.

Got a pair of needle nosed vice grips? Clamp off the flexible hose that feeds the heater core and see what happens. Obviously you don't want to clamp down so hard that you damage the hose. Light pressure should be enough. You could also have someone work the temperature control and watch the movement of the rod that controls that valve. It might not be going fully from stop to stop but it's nothing that is repairable, it might be a way to confirm that it's the problem. Understand that it could be experiencing full movement and still be leaking internally.

Just for the purposes of explanation, there is no 'side' to a heater core. It is the radiator that supplies heat and the evaporator is the radiator that supplies cooling. Two separate devices.

Item 27. The air conditioner filter. When was that last replaced? Could be restricting airflow.

Item 33. The Intake Door. Is that fully opening and closing? Do you have a setting for Max AC? That Intake Door should control the percentage of recirculation of cabin air. On Max AC, far more air is being recirculated to maximize the cooling effect. When not on Max AC, the door allows for more fresh air. If that door is stuck fully open, sufficient cooling may not be achieved.

 

[mindless1]

If it doesn't have dual zone controls (driver vs passenger or front vs rear at different temperatures) which yours does not appear to have, then both sides go through the same evaporator core, which is a single core with only an input and output port as shown by the two o-rings #41 in your diagram. I suppose it is possible that the duct for L/R splits before the core but that would be odd without dual zone controls and nothing I can see in the diagram suggests that. Was there an option for your model year for dual climate control? That might explain having such a setup even if yours doesn't (need to) use it.

The same looks true for the heater water valve, that it's a single core and should put out heat (or lack of) on both sides depending on the amount its valve is open. You should be able to set the system to defrost and cold to see if cold air is coming out or neutral to cold. It can't be a clogged heater core, that would only produce less heat.

FYI I checked on Dorman's website and the only part they sell for yours is the center console and on Autozne it's $150 + $200 core.
http://www.autozone.com/cooling-hea...ule/dorman-a-c-control-module/822903_0_0_8572

I'm not suggesting that part is the problem, just that sometimes Dorman sells other HVAC parts prone to fail for other vehicles but they don't for a Versa. I'd sooner pull one from a junkyard and with that angle, you get to tear into a junkyard vehicle even more while leaving yours more intact to learn the ins and outs of disassembly and avoiding damaging fragile plastic parts... a Versa training exercise then take as much as you want of the parts.

My point is that boomerang had a lot of good ideas and you may just have to start tearing into it more to check components and learn more about how the system splits the L/R sides to figure out what could affect one more than the other.

 

[leper84]

No fancy dual climate controls here!

Then you have only one temperature blend door.

If one side is getting cold, the problem is not the actuator and most likely not the door.

Your problem is most likely with refrigerant. Sometimes a low charge can cause one side of vents to cool less than others. Sometimes the same problem can be caused by too high of pressures due to a broken part.

You need to verify the charge of the system (not just top it off, evacuate and measure the current charge) as well as check the high and low side pressures with a correct charge.

 

[ShrutiAp]

The car seems to do this after the battery is disconnected, Even I tried everything in my Hyundai i20 that I saw on the Internet. The only thing that worked for me (immediately) was to remove the a/c control unit from in the car, directly below your cars radio/head unit, the one with the knobs.

 

[snoopy7548]

After driving home from the grocery store on Saturday in the heat, I decided enough was enough and bought a can of A/C Pro. Hooked it up and the gauge read about 10-15psi. Recharged it to ~35psi (it wouldn't take more than that, I'll have to check it again to make sure I didn't overcharge the lines), and now I have icy cold air blowing out of the vents! Just in time for winter! We'll see if the problem comes back, but I've been thinking about ditching the car next year anyways.

 

[chadcupp]

I have a 2012 Nissan Versa and my heat is warm at best. When I switch from fresh air to recirculate, I can get 111° but if I switch it to fresh air it drops to 88°. I have switched the thermostat, coolant flushed and 'burped' the system of all air. Any ideas?