08 silverado Blend door

Orullian · June 16, 2020

I have a broke blend door for a 08 Silverado. How hard is this to change and can you buy a new door at a part store? A mechanic is wanting to charge me a ton. I’d rather do it myself if it’s not to big of a chore. Any help is appreciate.

davester · June 17, 2020

It depends on which actuator is not working. Some are pretty straightforward to do, some need the dash disassembled or holes cut in parts to get at it.

MaverickZ71 · June 17, 2020

Yeah, it bites. I had to pay like $400 plus tax just because a couple of the little actuators went out. I think they said there's like 8 actuators moving 6 doors or something like that. I could get the actuators online for about $20-25, but I ended up having to pay dealer markup for the parts and have them do it, as they had to take half the dash and bottom panels apart to get to them and then they had to use their special GM-dealer-only scan tool to 'recalibrate' the system to align all of the doors when they were done, to get it all to work right. They can have their automatic HVAC system. Give me the good old manual kind where you can fix it with a simple toolbox. Always have to play with the danged temp all of the time on this 'automatic' system to get comfortable anyway; never had to do that in any other make of vehicle.

Edited June 17, 2020 by MaverickZ71

davester · June 17, 2020

48 minutes ago, MaverickZ71 said:

Yeah, it bites. I had to pay like $400 plus tax just because a couple of the little actuators went out. I think they said there's like 8 actuators moving 6 doors or something like that. I could get the actuators online for about $20-25, but I ended up having to pay dealer markup for the parts and have them do it, as they had to take half the dash and bottom panels apart to get to them and then they had to use their special GM-dealer-only scan tool to 'recalibrate' the system to align all of the doors when they were done, to get it all to work right. They can have their automatic HVAC system. Give me the good old manual kind where you can fix it with a simple toolbox. Always have to play with the danged temp all of the time on this 'automatic' system to get comfortable anyway; never had to do that in any other make of vehicle.

what year is your truck, as what you describe sounds wrong. At least for the GMT800 vehicles and earlier, the actuators auto-range when the truck is turned on, and the gmt900 trucks appear to use similar ones.

And you don't have to pay the dealer to do it, if your truck needs that reset done. You can get something like Autogenuity w gm enhancement, or something similar, or even buy the gm dealer tool (varies with what year your truck is). Not cheap, but it doesn't take many dealer visits to pay for it...

MaverickZ71 · June 18, 2020

19 hours ago, davester said:

what year is your truck, as what you describe sounds wrong. At least for the GMT800 vehicles and earlier, the actuators auto-range when the truck is turned on, and the gmt900 trucks appear to use similar ones.

And you don't have to pay the dealer to do it, if your truck needs that reset done. You can get something like Autogenuity w gm enhancement, or something similar, or even buy the gm dealer tool (varies with what year your truck is). Not cheap, but it doesn't take many dealer visits to pay for it...

GMT900, 2009 on the truck I was talking about. Tried a lot of internet 'advice' on resetting/realigning the system (key on, press this button, press that button, do this, do that, do the hokey pokey, open door, close the door, wait 5 minutes, give Jobu his rum, sacrifice a bucket of KFC, hope the stars are in alignment, etc., none of that worked. Dealer service manager laughed and said yeah, you have to have the software they have in their $1200 GM scan tool. I realize there are other scan tools available, but I can't afford to pay a couple/few hundred on something that doesn't work, and I needed the AC fixed fast, as I have a family member who has had heat stroke in the past and they have to stay cool at all times. Seems like with each new generation, GM takes more steps to make it harder for Joe Public to fix his own vehicle.