Cheap Plastic Parts are Ruining Modern Cars? CAR WIZARD shares exactly what they are & why 

I'm a 3D printing enthusiast and can say with certainty it's not worth it either, maybe for your own vehicle you're fixing yourself you might go that route, but the liability problems in making your own parts makes it not worth it, if a DIY part breaks that's on you, if a OEM part breaks it's not. Too many people that advocate 3D printing replacements for stuff in a situation like this don't consider liability, also the time needed to measure the part, CAD the part and then print the part, if that takes more than minutes it's cheaper to just order the part.

Its criminal how new cars are designed. Like Eric O says, "We now have push to start buttons and electronic emergency brakes to fix problems we never had". That says it all.

All these cheap components began life as a great engineering achievement. In the case of these actuators, they helped bring down the overall cost of an auto HVAC system from a $5000 option on a new car to a $500 one. But then the bean counters got involved. They threw out the designer's high quality nylon or brass gears for cheap injection plastic ones, because they saved a few cents per unit X 100K units. It's part of mass production history. Designed in mean time between failures. The only thing that matters is that parts last the life of the manufacturer warranty. Beyond that, they just want you to buy a new vehicle.

Good video. Thanks. Those plastic gears are called "planned obsolescence". Gears used to be made out of brass or steel. Now it's cheap plastic crap. I had a Fellowes paper shredder. Same problem. Mostly metal gears but one plastic gear designed to break when the warranty expires. And to even get to the innards, you almost have to destroy the case. The case has no screws or bolts to disassemble it easily but the two plastic halves are welded together. Manufacturers do everything they can to make it impossible and/or outrageously expensive for you to fix anything.

As the owner of a small independent shop, you hit the nail on the head with this one. Did one in a tundra that called for something like 5.5hrs and $40 part the guy was livid but it was stuck on heater with texas summer coming so he felt like he had to.

It isn’t only cars that engineers and bean counters make too complex. I was a C-130 crew chief in the USAF, the airplane designed in the 1950’s and the ones I worked made in the mid- 1960’s. To replace a windshield was a 3 day adventure. I asked a structures engineer one time why it was designed that way. He said it looked good on paper, before things like the instrument panel, windshield wipers, overhead control panels, seats, flight instruments, and a bunch of switches were installed. I had a chance to take a tour of the factory. During the tour, I asked why nutplates (similar to Rivnuts or captive nuts) weren’t used. The engineer showing us around said he’d never heard of a problem using nuts that you can’t see, and can almost touch. When I worked at Boeing, the 777 was actually designed for the mechanic. During development, Boeing had mechanics come in and perform certain tasks to verify procedures and such. If the mechanic couldn’t reach a certain component or hardware, the engineers designed an access panel.

I'm in Kenya, but really appreciate your universal advice on how to maintain a vehicle well. I know your target is the American public, but thanks all the same.

I remember when the only little black box on a car was a voltage regulator. They almost never went bad and they were cheap and easy to replace.

On the surface, the idea of using electric motors to move the various flaps and doors in the HVAC system seemed like a good idea. But as most of us know, the automakers have made the various parts involved, cheap, cheap, and cheaper!!! The old cable and vacuum motor systems may have been more complicated in some ways, but in reality, they were simpler, more reliable, and far less expensive to repair when needed. This also brings up a major issue I have with all the auto makers,... their belief that they have to run practically everything through a computer. My first experience with this mentality was more than twenty yrs ago when I was working on a 98 Dodge Caravan with inoperable windshield wipers. After replacing the wiper switch (which had burnt terminals) the wipers still didn't work and after looking at wiring diagrams I learned that Chrysler was running wiper operation along with many other functions through a computer (the BCM). Replacing the BCM at a ridiculous cost restored the operation of the wipers. As a technician, I have to wonder how the operation of lights, wipers, HVAC, and other systems is improved by involving a computer. The answer is that the improved control is minimal at best and not worth the added complication and expense. The auto makers have to stop over complicating things and reducing the bean counters say in quality of parts.

This is what happens when we have an insatiable appetite for luxuries and amenities. What really torques me off is that we can’t even order/purchase a new car without these things anymore. I remember looking for my first new car in 2004 and even then I could only find a couple models without power locks, windows or a/c. I absolutely dread buying cars anymore.

Listening to Wizard talk about "there's more" especially when you've got "more" options reminded me of how it's just "more" to go wrong.

What a great video! I had an actuator fail on my 2014 Jeep Wrangler. Fortunately it could be accessed by removing a few panels and parts, standing on your head, and cutting your hands and arms on every sharp piece of punched steel and plastic. When I finished I looked like I'd been in a fight with a tiger, and felt like it too!

I think for this very reason (high cost to replace cheap parts) it really makes financial sense to keep old cars running. Least automation, least complexity, easy maintenance.

You're absolutely right. Plastic is for picnics. My first adverse experience with plastics was in a 1968 Camaro 4-speed. In 1967 the throttle lever passed through the floorboard and was braced with a metal retaining bracket. In 1968 they made that piece out of plastic and I broke them frequently. If that breaks in a race you will only get half throttle at best. Even passing someone you lose power in the middle of your maneuver if it breaks. Plastic is for decoration not mechanization.

This is the 1st time I've heard of this thank you. I'll call down there tomorrow to the big 3 and have them to start putting cables back on, thank you so much

I've seen similar weird stuff like this in home electronics, including tape decks, dvd and/or laserdisc players. The number of actuations and rotations in the gears far exceed what you find in a car. The problem always seem to go back to Rube Goldberg engineers to underspec the parts, and damn bean-counter accountants who force the companies to buy cheaper parts, to save a few pennies.

I went to the dealer to have that little black box changed. They gave me the same story. They didn't know, if the dashboard would have to be removed to fix it. I went to my local auto body shop.They replaced it by reaching up into the dashboard. It took them 15 mins to change it. I paid them with a tip at a cost of $50.

What seems to be even worse is the automobile manufacturers have lately integrated the HVAC controls into the infotainment systems making things even more complex to repair i.e. more expensive.

This is where DIY is essential. Nobody can afford hours and hours of labor at a shop to disassemble dashboards, etc. to replace a $10 part! Also another area where OLD vehicles rule. I'm constantly surprised how much plastic is on my 25 yo vehicle. Tip for DIYers: If you have to work with plastic parts, make sure their temperature is between 65 and very warm. Cold temps make plastic brittle.

Ran into this on my Dodge Ram. Dodge had a recall on it that involved a software update, which had already been done, but one broke anyway. Maybe part of the problem is software driving the actuators too hard. I lucked out and the clicking one was easy to get to and replace myself.

Wizard! Keep doing what you do! Thank you and your wife for taking the time to do these videos. I’ve owned Pontiac Fieros and I thought the 80’s GM was peak suck. Apparently we have new levels of frustration. This is why I buy service manuals and am not afraid of gutting an interior if it saves me hundreds. Just have to make sure I have a spare vehicle for my daily.

The other thing I hate about dash removals is most shops never get them back where there isn't a little rattle that wasn't there before or something else.

Some of the aftermarket actuators I've seen do have metal gears inside. They usually come with a lifetime guarantee. If you end up having to remove the dash its best to replace every actuator you can find under there.

Remembering the good old days when everything had manually operated mechanical linkages! Thanks for showing your '69 Citroen. It brings back memories for me. My sixth grade teacher had a Citroen like it in 1962. His was probably a '59 or '60 model, but I remember those little round brake lights up high next to the rear window! Cool!

A friend of mine had a Citroen 2CV in high school (we're only talking like 10 years ago) and we always got a kick out of the fact that the "HVAC" was a knob you'd turn to open vents from the front of the car to the cabin. Wanted more fan speed? Time to drive faster!

The failure mode is almost always lubricant gumming up the resistor "arc" inside the servo. The lubricant causes a loss of contact with the trace and the computer bounces it back and forth to try to get the right value. This chews the gears. Cleaning before the gear is gone can fix it. A good practice is to cycle ALL your settings periodically, this will move them back and forth and keep that lubricant out of the works. It also will stop "pitting" on the position sensor - this happens when a voltage is conducted on the same contact continuously. Similar to dirty contacts on an old relay. Note - Often the noise can be remediated by just moving the one actuator to an alternate position. Example set to interior air vs exterior or floor vs upper vent. In fact doing this methodically will help you find which one is the culprit. Obviously when its totally gone you will not have that mode. You might get hot air when you select AC etc.

That’s a higher quality vehicle and HOPEFULLY no screw tabs got broken off and it goes back together.. when I had my shop, I mostly worked on older domestics. We lived in an extremely hot environment… cars plastics were brittle as saltines. I made my customers very aware of broken off screw tabs thus stopping proper reassembly. My customers were awesome so I had to make mounts out of plumbers tape, copper wire loops and JB weld.

I'm the consumer. I want levers and cables. I want hand crank windows. I want vents put back into the kick panels. I want a radio with knobs and push buttons. I do not want touch screens and computers.

A topic you may want to cover is headlight replacement cost. 2 hrs labor for a Chevy Malibu because the 1st item of business is remove bumper cover. We always recommend both headlights be replaced because if one is burnt out the other is soon to follow and you don't want to pay labor twice. Plus we give a 12 month warranty and if one does burn out we will replace for free.

Just finished maintenance, AC cleaning on my daily driver, a '02 Focus Zetec. All mechanic. No electronic crap. Old school cables.

Super video! I remember the cable actuated heater doors in cars that rarely caused problems. Nowadays as you pointed out those are gone. Just replaced an actuator in my Dad's 2005 Silverado, but fortunately that one was easy to get to near the floor. Dad was going literally crazy with "that darned clicking noise!"

Great video. I had a 2004 Armada (same vehicle as QX56) that started the clicking noise. Best SUV I’ve ever owned except for this noise and the brakes and the transmission. Lasted 100,000 miles before I finally tapped out.

The more complex something is, the more that can go wrong

For longevity of the actuators do not use the Auto function, in Auto the actuators are constantly moving, thus causing failure. If you use it in a manual mode, the doors hold position and you can modulate heat or cooling with the fan.

Knock on wood! My family has 3 early 2000s Volvos (2000 V70 XC, 04 XC90 T6, 04 S60R) all with automatic climate control and over 250k on the clock, none of them have ever had issues with those actuators. They all still work in all vent locations, and heat/cool. I'm not sure what Volvo did differently with these actuators but I'm sure glad ours still work!

Hi Wizard! Loved your video, but you'll be pleased to know that not all modern cars are ruined by cheap plastic parts! I have a Mitsubishi Attrage (sedan) and some of the HVAC actuators (the ones that control whether the air is vented into the cabin or recirculated) are very much mechanical (I'm fairly sure!) You can hear them moving the vent just like in that old car. So, if you go cheap enough, you don't have to get bogged down in expensive repairs.

Your comment about potential metal gear replacements for the plastic reminded me of two things: 1) my 1973 Chevy Chevelle 350V8 stripped its plastic cam sprocket, leading to a $700 repair bill (1985 dollars) When the mechanic asked if I wanted to spent an additional $25 for a metal replacement, I asked, "Why would anyone not do that?" 2) standard reliability improvement on VW/Audi engines was to replace the water pumps with fragile plastic impellers with metal Great video, as always.

Hi Wizard, I was an aircraft mechanic for 42 years. Light planes were fairly simple to work on until you had to crawl under the instrument panel. You would NOT enjoy that. But, when Cessna was thinking about designing a plane for the short haul FEDEX and UPS haulers they came up with (clean sheet) a scaled up 206 and made the Caravan. That plane was developed with input form the end users, and that was a brilliant idea. They installed the most reliable turbine engine in it, the PT-6 from Pratt&Whitney and really considered the mechanics when it came to the airframe. For instance, both instrument panels slid out on rails after removing some front screws. I commented to my wife last night that one of the kit car companies that build exotics ought to try their hand at making an inexpensive kit for an everyday driver that was back to basics. Simple to build and work on, reliable, no power seats, windows, mirrors and economical to operate, cheap to insure, easily replaceable body panels and rust proof. I think the last car I bought that ticked a few of those boxes was my (54mpg) 1985 CRX HF.

It's not just cars, it's everything. I worked with an old Amish guy who had an old Minneapolis Moline tractor from the 30's and a new John Deere. I asked him if he thought his new John Deere would still be running in 90 years like the old one. His response was that there was no way, the new one was filled with plastic junk like that. Even the wiring was thin and flimsy

The Australian falcon had a door in the ac system that let hot air in. The shaft for that was plastic and had a metal reinforcement up the middle. Unfortunately that steel didn’t go all the way so it broke off. The dash had to come out to replace it. They knew the problem so they extended the steel bit on the replacement part but kept putting the old one in new vehicles

Planned obsolescence plays a massive part in this.

Car Wizard here is a good one that I got from one of my instructors in college when I was learning your trade. This guy worked for GM designing the body of cars. He did one that he liked so he bought it. The headlight died on him so he said to himself "I designed it I should be able to fix it" (famous last words) he worked on it for something like 4-hours just to change a headlight bulb.

Talking of dash removal reminded me of a time when I rewired a1971 Lotus 7 series 4. Well, that was fun !! The dash was fibreglass and part of the main body. I had to lie backwards and upside down in a very cramped space and only thanks to the Smiths dials being removable was it possible. If I attempted it today I would probably have a coronary Thanks Mr and Mrs Wizard for your excellent programmes and advice.

Best video title ever. Never a truer sentence spoken. Cheap plastic junk. Cant stand cold, hot or wear, or any excessive cycle.

This reminds me of the powered sliding door latch actuator I had issues with on my honda odyssey. It would hang up inconsistently. Took it to a dealer, they couldn't figure it out and charged me $200. I fortunately found a video and did the work myself. Took the actuator out, disassembled it, cleaned it, and re-lubricated it. Has been working fine ever since. Wish I just did the work myself from the beginning.

The biggest issue with these is the rotary encoder or the potentiometer wears down and creates a bad spot on the sensor strip. This then causes the the motor to over drive the gears causing the broken teeth. It's not so much the plastic that is the problem, it's the old rotary encoders and POTs.

My first car (UK, 1966 Hillman Imp) had a directly manually operated flap with four positions: OFF, SCREEN, SCREEN + CAR & CAR, a hot-water valve operated by a lever and cable plus a single-speed remotely-mounted fan that I added.

Had this happen with air handler for my house. Actuator for the re-circ/defrost flap had a stripped tooth…I pulled it apart and rotated the tooth 180 degrees so the it was meshing with fresh teeth, been working great two years later…saved $250

People who get mad should not get mad at you, they should be thankful that they have an such an amazing technician working on their vehicles. Thanks for great content!

Hey Wizard, This is long but valuable info. You are 100% right but there is more!!! As a Plastic Process Engineer with 40+years' experience I would like to add more insight on why some plastic parts fail. One reason is "RE-GRIND" !!!!!!!!!!!! Well known issue to any Plastic Injection Molding Company. When you have plastic from the resin supplier it is considered and classed as "VIRGIN" resin. It is processed with a lubricant additive. This enables the resin to be molded without stress to the polymer which is formulated to possess a required strength and longevity. Many times, a molder will mold some parts that do not meet specific quality requirements such a size defect. Typically, with dishonest molders they will re-grind the bad parts and put as much re-grind mixed with virgin resin as they think they can get away with to save money. The re-grind does not have the required amount of lubricant for proper molding to produce the strength and most important longevity. This is not such a big concern with most plastics such as ABS or low-grade plastic. What you have with the Actuator Gear is an "engineered polymer" which is very expensive compared with plastic such as ABS. A gear with too much re-grind can look the same and can measure the same as a virgin gear. So, gears that do not pass physical size or other quality issues can be a significant $ loss of resin that has to be scrapped if cannot be re-grind for reuse. Dis-honest molders can also use a lesser strength and lower $ cost polymer than specified which looks the same but longevity is compromised. Here is the most significant problem we face is that a molded gear such as these are. The only way to inspect it for strength and most significant the longevity is a "DISTRUCTIVE" test which is next to impossible to do during molding. Other factors are the strength and longevity of the gear changes, sometimes for days after initially being molded. Hot in environment such as the southwest can reduce the longevity of an engineered polymer. Having delt with China molders they are the least trustworthy in my experienced opinion. Bring the gear molding to the US where the car manufacturer and walk through the door un-announced and take a sample of the resin out of the molding machine hopper. I can suggest a hungry attorney should file a class action lawsuit and hopefully have better cars available.

I love my 1966 and 1968 cars that are daily drivers. So easy to fix (for parts that are still available!) 😂

Helped a buddy replace a turn signal switch on his early 1990s Thunderbird. Real easy job. It had been a while since I worked on a car of this vintage, and it's not even THAT old. After getting the covers off the steering column, I stood in awe of the switch. Half of the switch body was a zinc/Zamak casting. Electrical is two heavy multi-way interconnects with double-clips to retain the cable harness. After releasing the clips, the connectors slide off effortlessly. No struggle (wow). The two-axis pivot for the lever stalk was constructed using steel pins riding in a die cast zinc yoke. All the mechanics were crisp and stout. Lever itself has a black-oxide treated steel post as its backbone, and it spring-detent clips in (I kid you not). If you break the arm, but not the switch, you can just wiggle it loose of its retaining clip (with a little fiddling), and pop in a new one, without even pulling a single piece of the dash apart. Darn switch was huge and felt like it weighed half a pound. I had gotten so used to crappy all-plastic switch assemblies that will crack if you even look at them wrong. I forgot this was once "normal" in my lifetime. Here I am, bug-eyed over a switch. We used to know how to make a quality part. Engineers used to consider this "acceptable". Now it's all garbage by comparison.

From my own experience, I would suggest only using oem actuators. I went through 3 different aftermarket actuators in my tacoma. The longest any of those lasted was about two weeks before the clicking came back. Then I finally bought one from the dealer and it has been fine for the last 7 months. Hopefully it lasts as long as the original did (about 11 years).

I like cars, I like computers, but I don't like them together. The most modern car I ever owned was from 1994. The more gadgets and gizmos you put in a car, the more stuff there is to break down. I like my cars analogue thank you very much.

I had the heater coil fail on 2003 dodge pickup. Removed the dashboard...Yes that is a big job...But while it was out I cleaned all the grounds, deleated most of the blend door actuators. Trimed the housing of the remaining blend doors so cold weather contraction would not bind them up, replaced those door actuators with new, Jumped the blower motor resistor so the heat fan is either on or off, (Dodge blower motor resistors are under valued for the blower motor amp draw) and finally reinstalled the failed heater core. Sounds like a lot of crazy work and I would agree but I dont ever want to pull the dash again.

I work on these kinds of systems in cars and I constantly point out how overcomplicated these systems are. You basically need 2-3 teams to engineer a ECU module that simply opens or closes components. Keep in mind a lot of this has to do with safety, like what if a kid puts a finger when the window goes up or emergency operation in a crash but it's a lot of testing to make sure it lasts within the warranty period. We do try to make sure the parts are easily accessible but most of that is due to the manufacturer placing the components and a lot of programming is done with dealer specific password protected tools. Cars these days are so complicated you need cybersecurity tech implemented in everything.

Car Wizard, as a content creator, you and your team really seem to have a knack of making really unique content that is constantly evolving. The changes have been gradual but it shows that you all are constantly asking yourself “what can we do to give subscribers the information they want”. Well done.

Most GM vehicles used vacuum to actuate the blend door. Even with their electronic climate controls, which were fully electronic and automatic by 1984, still used vacuum to actually move the mechanical parts, they just had electronics sending signal to the vacuum to engage or disengage. That’s why even to this day 35 year old Cadillacs might be piles of junk but their climate controls still work.

3:38 I'm in love with those purely "mechanical" controls! 🤪 I would have this affinity for them, had I not been burned by electrical controls, time after time. * There was a reason for the "Cash for clunkers" program in 2009. *

I had this exact problem on my 2009 Dodge Ram several years back (2016?). Seriously loud clicking from under the dashboard. I looked online and found a Dodge Service Bulletin about the HVAC blend door actuators. Thought maybe they would cover the cost as a recall. I also saw that it might cost about $400 to fix, as the entire plenum box might have to be removed to gain access. So I took the truck to the local Dodge dealer, asked about the Service Bulletin and was given the phone number to the Regional Warranty/Recall Service Manager. I dropped off the truck and told them to fix it. I called the Regional Warranty/Recall Services Manager and left a message with his secretary asking for a call back. To make a long story short he never called back. When I went to pick up my "fixed" truck, I was presented with a bill for $1,350. I called 'bullshit', they immediately lowered the bill to $850. I still called 'bullshit, then asked the Dealer Service Writer to call the Regional Warranty/Recall Service Manager and when they got the guy on the phone to hand the phone to me. They said they couldn't do that, that they would get fired! So I asked for the Service Manager, explained the whole situation to him, he lowered the price to $425, I paid and left with my truck. I looked under the dash and found a screwdriver that was not mine. So the mechanic left me his cheap screwdriver. I also didnt see any signs of maintenance being done, no fingerprints, no scratches, no sign of distrubance. About two years later the clicking returned. I climbed under the dash myself and realized that the blend door actuator that was clicking was easily accessible just by removing the glove box door. So 15 minutes of work and about $40 for the actuator, it was fixed again and has worked fine ever since. I opened up the removed actuator and sure enough there were some boken teeth on the cheap plastic gears. I have a suspicion that the Dealer also replaced the same actuator and tried to charge me $1,350. They did get me for $425 though and probably should have charged only about $125. Thieves.

Having worked in consumer electronics all my life these broken plastic gears are all to familiar. The difference is that in VCR's Laserdisc players etc the gears were available as spare parts, but the time and skill required in replacing them made many repairs too expensive and customers just said scrap it. Now cars are full of them and no surprise as the plastic ages it breaks hence all the dreaded clicking. So they next time you are ticking the options box for a new car just think about when not if all these parts will break and cost you a fortune.

I'm glad I have the knowledge on how a car operates and how it's put together...but it's sad for people that really don't know because they havent been taught anything at all. I've replaced horns, tires, starters, blower motors, vital trim pieces and dead switches, gauge clusters, thermostats, radiators, hoses and coolant, headlights and headlamp assemblies and suspension components for any of my friends who don't have the experience to do any mechanical work and I offer myself to tackle the job and they pay me a little something for my help and I do it because I enjoy it and keep gaining experience each time.

Hey wizzard, mad respect for your skills and nonchalant efficiency. Cheers!

I had an hvac actuator fail in a car I owned. Ripped the dash out and replaced it. Took me two days and an absolute pain to do because all trim in the car had to be removed first. 6 months later the new actuator stripped a gear. Tore it down again replaced the plastic gears with a set I milled from a tougher POM. I had the car a few years after that and it worked fine when I sold it. Bad engineering is what it is.

I'm so so happy with my '67 Morris Minor, All the complex electronics are under the bonnet on the bulkhead ( firewall ). It's called a flasher unit. Mind you, I'm going to install 4 way flashers so there'll be 2 little aluminium cylinders. Thanks for the video's. Much appreciated. Colin UK 🇬🇧

I replaced one of those electronic actuators in my 2005 Buick LeSabre, Cost was under $50, no labor fee ( did the repair myself thanks to a RU-vid vid) and took about 15-20 minutes start to finish. Easy peasy. Unit was on the right side of the dash and relatively easy to access after the glove box was removed.

This is also very common on some throttle actuators. One tooth breaks and the whole unit jams up. You can pry off the metal clips, holding the plastic cover and remove the tooth jamming everything, but it still needs to be replaced.

This is a great idea for a series - thanks Wizard and Mrs. Wizard!

I pulled my dash on my 2005 Tahoe and replaced all 4 of the actuators. Working great now. The hardest part was finding a quality replacement that wasn't even cheaper than the originals. It also took me 3 or 4 days of my time.

This started back in the 60's. Ford started using nylon gears in power window motors. On hot days people would bring their new T-Bird's into the shop complaining that the power windows would not work. What happened is the nylon gears would fuse together. Often a whack on the door would free it up and the windows would work. But, after spending a fortune on a new T-Bird, the owners were less than happy that banging on the doors was part of the window function.

Oh I had the Aircon Actuators Broken on my car FOR SO LONG and I didn't know what it was, Then I looked around and Got 2 actuators that was broken and put it back myself For around 90 bucks(400 RON) and my car is a Passat b6, Good thing I didn't need to take out the dash!

My 2004 Saab 9-5 had a similar issue. You could 3D print a replacement, and it wasn't too bad to access really, either. However, in that car it was not the gears that broke, it was the lever on the outside of the module.

I owned 2 Firebirds with the pop up headlights and both of them had the plastic gears break in the motor. The aftermarket sold brass gear replacements for permanent fixes. Cheap plastic parts break.

Did one, not too long ago, on a 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis. There are some "short cuts" that can be used to get to it but it STILL took me a few hours to do it and I am not a shop. Simply a DIY. This video is DEAD ON in it's discussion of the potential issues!

I had my blend door actuator go in my 2004 ranger. By the time October rolled around it was getting very motivating to fix it. Fortunately my bony hands just barely fit in the little space under the dash.

One thing I've noticed is that is not really simply plastic thats the issue, but rather CHEAP plastic, alot of cars I work on from the 90s and 80s seem to have plastic parts that never fail, but after about 2005 those same plastic parts seem to break and literally deteriorate.

Planned obsolescence that has made new vehicles even worse to own. To a degree this has been found in vehicles for years but it truly is getting ridiculous. I loved Wizard's comment at the end where he says, "it will tell you where to go". Yes, it says to go into your wallet and pull out thousands of dollars. If you don't then it's telling you to go to hell and live, if possible, without some of these repair parts and subsequent labor. Glad to see this one because these are cases where people might think they're being scammed by the repair shops. No, it all goes back to the OEM's.

My Mom's 48 Ford had few heat/vent issues. Little "cozy wings" on the front doors could be rotated to supply fresh air in the summer. In the winter the optional, extra cost heater, which hung beneath the dash, had little doors which could be opened to supply a bit of heat...not the greatest system but we didn't have too many actuator problems on that car.

I had a 1996 Subaru legacy outback with this issue. Only happened on defrost mode and luckily the other modes worked. In the Colorado winter I had to get the inside to 85 or so degrees so it would defrost the windshield. Great heater great a/c but it still sucked.

Wow - a blue & white Citroen next to the blue & white bus - almost a matched set! 🙂 My '96 Camry & Tacoma still have mechanical controls. But my '98 Altima has actuators, and they're still working OK after 25 years and 230K-miles. I guess some plastics are better than others!

The actuators on both my 2002 Windstars click for the temp control..if you go all the way cold they click..move it slightly off full cold and it stops..air is still icy cold and saved me $$..✌️

Failing electronics is one of the many reasons I love simple older cars.

I took apart the driver's side blend door actuator in my 2005 Sierra, cleaned the contacts with alcohol, applied a little dielectric grease and it has worked flawlessly ever since. Fortunately this one was easy to get to.

I recently replaced one of these actuators on my 03 f150. Ended up having to take out the front seats and pull up the carpet to do the job properly. Was a real pain but could have been worse. I can definitely see how these jobs add up in labor hours.

Since I am soon to turn 72 years old, I have seen so many areas where cars have gotten a lot more complicated and a lot more expensive to repair. I do remember the days of simple lever and cable controls for the heating ventilation and air conditioning controls on cars. In those days a person just manually adjusted the levers until they were comfortable. Today cars have automatic climate controls. These require all these actuator units where the gear teeth can break.

I was the original person to bring up 3D printing the gears for Bentley and I'm happy to hear that you're having gears made. In that application it makes total sense to have gears made as it's not a critical piece to the car or a component to cause compromise. I'm sorry it's going to cost you so much to have gear manufactured - the 3D printing community is full of pro open-source and people willing to prototype designs and parts. If in the future you run into issues where you need a one-off part I'd be more than willing to put my efforts forward, you already pay us by providing content. As for the actuators it makes perfect sense to replace them with OEM components if available especially at that price point, the only reason someone would make their own gears would be to fix the broken teeth failure point, but on the business side again it wouldn't make sense.

I can relate. It seemed to start in the late 70's. I was impressed that my '80 Brat had everything in a single box. IIRC 6 bolts held the unit in place. Plug in a power connection, 2 water hoses, and good to go. Everything was in that box, blower, heater core, etc controlled by a couple cables. Yank it in 15 minutes, all mechanical. Add AC and it was just a couple extra tubes and an AC coil at the back of the box. These days everyone wants push button everything. My current car has a temp sensor outside the car (no need for AC if it's cold outside) another in the dash. Then electronics to determine if the temps match, figure out which door needs to open, whether the AC needs to be running, and such. Then a humidity sensor to determine if AC needs to be running even when the car needs to warm up. Of course, with most, you can't disable auto-temp control to simply bring in fresh air from outdoors. Then to keep temp perfect, these doors adjust the mix continuously. "Oops, temp is 1 degree too warm, open the AC door" sort of stuff. Then there's "passenger wants to be 80 degrees, driver wants to be 60" type of stuff, so another set of doors. Then we'll bury this deep inside the dash because it's easier to install, saving us (the mfgr) $50 per unit.

My very used ‘59 Olds had vacuum actuated heater controls. I bought it in the late 60s and was keenly aware even back then that this heater control system was excessively complex. They worked by applying engine vacuum to a rubber bladder in what looked like a vacuum advance on a distributor (almost certainly was the case) set up so that when the bladder was evacuated (no pun intended) it pulled on a solid wire that opened the vent door. Still they were fixable.

Even on mother's Day.

Wizard. That "click click click" sound was happening to my girlfriends's Mazda 6. Silicon Valley hourly rate is now $300! For a Mazda!?!? Porsche shop next door is $600/hr!! The Mazda shop said it was going to be $1k-2k to fix, but showed how to permanently disconnect it for FREE! :-D So we have fresh air all the time rather than fresh vs recirculating but it's NO LONGER MAKING THE NOISE and we get both heat and AC!

Man that was a strong intro. Love how you get right to the point Mr. Wizard.

In my 92 Mazda it could be frustrating too. Gears are good quality and they rarely fail. But potentiometer part does wear. So new actuator position "spots" develops and actuator starts oscillating and making variable speed cricket crackling sounds.

I’m so glad I can get to mine. I need a super short screwdriver and I’m very uncomfortable trying to get to it but it can be done without taking out the dash. Remember, plastic makes it possible!!

I appreciate your honesty. I worked at a collision center and heard the ever since thing too many times, lots related to these actuators! Excellent content

Ford fiesta had them accessible. I could easily replace them myself, on the passenger center console. It was only $12 in parts, and 20 min in labor. The clicking is a plastic cog that lost some of its tooth. They sell after market boxes for $18, which have wider cogs in black (carbon reinforced plastic cog). Its cheaper and durable.

Totally agree, trunk latches,actuators, even parts on chainsaws that you would never believe are plastic.

I am so glad that my car still uses cables. I have a '13 Scion tC and it still uses cables.. I had the vent selector get stuck once, but then the cables said "oh hold on a second, we're busy..." and then they started working again. I think I'd go nuts if I had to deal with those stupid things.

The parts suppliers could put metal gears in them and charge the OEM twice as much for the part, but then the OEM wouldn't make any money on the backend for replacements. That's been going on for a while with Corvette pop up headlights. I replaced the plastic gears in my C5 with brass, fingers crossed.

I bought a 2019 Forester last Sept. Was completely satisfier with the car. Then April came along and the check engine light came on.The Service man said it was the thermal control valve (cheap plastic part replacing the thermostat). Thankfully it was covered under Warranty because it saved me $1500

A few things that I believe contribute to the problem. During cold weather operation the cheap rubber wiping seals in the air box get stiff and the forces required to open the valve become greater than the actuator was designed for. The encoders potentiometers may drift in their values causing the actuator to over actuate causing stress on the gears. Also, thirdly I have seen synthetic lubricant that was not matched with the type of plastic used to make the gears and they became embrittled over time.