'96 Lesabre Heat only hot on passenger side

[rashdabull09]

I have a 1996 Buick Lesabre, it has been a fantastic car and I love it. But I am having a problem with heat coming out of the drivers side vents. The heat is really hot on the passenger side but it comes out luke warm on the side that matters. I was thinking it was a blend door actuator but I have no idea where the drivers side one is or even if there is one. I found the passenger side actuator behind the glove compartment and it appeared to be working correctly because when I adjusted the heat it moved just fine and the passenger side vents went hot. If anyone has an idea of what it could be please give me some advice, I'd rather fix it than take it to a dealer and pay a fortune. Any help would be great, Thank you.

Also on a side note I don't have the dual temp. controls.

 

[zaxbat]

Have you experimented with the options? Same result when you switch the heat up to the vent? By the way, does the a/c have problems only on the driver side? Do you park under trees? I have had leaves somehow get into the blower ducts and block the vents. Just some ideas.

 

[mellowde]

Factory manual says if you have had low or not battery power or disconnected battery recently then you've lost the KAM (memory in the hvac programmer) which causes hovoc in actuatior positions etc. It says to connect a scan tool and clear codes to go back to normal operation. It may show up as a dtc code of 051 or such. I've read about folks who got results by disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it and all sorts of bizarre procedures. But the troubleshooting tree indicates clearing the code will solve the problem. Those who have encountered this problem after battery was disconnected also experienced broken actuator (airflow vent dampers) issues because they reached in and moved the damper by hand thereby stripping it's gears, which then meant they needed a new programmer. The programmer on the electronic controlled hvac system gm cars contains the integrated circuit as well as the temperature actuators. With this system the a/c is on at all times above 48 deg F and the actuator forces the cooled air through the heating coil (core) to heat the car. Cooling occurs when needed when the programmer closes the passage of the cooled air through the heater core thus cooling the car inside. It seems the programmer loses it's memory when power is interrupted which then requires erasing the code that causes. There is a learning process after erasing the code on some models. The programmer uses signals from potentiometers on the actuators to get feedback as to the position of the dampers and slowly adjusts them over time to normal operation. But the manual is clear about clearing the code first.