No hot air from driver side vent

gverrault

Member
I have a 2013 CX-5 touring with the manual climate control and I have noticed now that it is winter I get no hot air from the driver side ac vent on the dash. I do get air from the vent but it just seems room temperature. The other dash vents are working correctly. I have not taken it into the dealer as the dealer near me is a bit of a rip-off (example being they wanted 800 to change the spark plugs). I was thinking about replacing the blend door actuator that seems to be located behind the glove box with one from a salvage yard. Anyone experience a problem similar to this?
 
I think that airflow originates from the heater unit rather than the vent itself. The vents are interconnected and getting them out is a big job.
 
The blend door only controls how hot or cold the air is, i.e. blending or directing air flow from the particular apparatus that dictates the temp of the air you want. As long as the air coming out of the center vents is HOT or COLD (w/AC), then that door is working as normal. What is the temp out of the passenger side-side vent? Is it the same or different +/-?

I guess the "circulation" door that direct the air to the particular part of the car - torso, torso/floor, floor, floor/defrost, defrost is the door that might be causing the issue.

The side (outermost) vents never really get that much air velocity and due to the distance traveled, the air coming out of them can loose a lot of thermal energy by the time the air makes it to the actual vent.

I do not know how long the ducting is or how many bends it makes or what the thermal properties are of the duct material itself is, but again, the side, door vents are not the main distributors of air. Now, if you cut air flow to the center vents (not sure if this is actually possible), then the side vents begin to push more air, but again, not at the levels that the center vents do.

I guess, if you want to, you can close the passenger side vent to "force" more air out of the other three torso vents.

My thinking, the shorter the run, the hotter the air...the longer the run, the more time the air has to "cool" off.

Have you verified the temp using a temp gun; a few bucks at your local HF.
 
I guess, if you want to, you can close the passenger side vent to "force" more air out of the other three torso vents.
I have always done this when driving alone, and can confirm that it forces more air from the other 3 dash vents. How could it not?!

Back in the mid 80s, Honda would direct untreated outside air thru those outboard vents, which could be controlled with a wheel on the vent. And they had a bi-level control which would direct warm air to the floor, and cooler air to the dash. Always made a lot of sense to me. Probably costs "too much" to implement any more.
 
The ducting to the vents is very carefully designed to ensure the flow of air is equal across all four vents. With all four open you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference in either flow or temperature.

The auto climate control on a CX-5 will provide “warm feet, cool face” as long as it is set to auto. Models like the CX-3 with dials have a setting to achieve the same effect.
 
I have the manual climate control system in my car. Currently I have the heat on full and have the dial for the vents set just to have air come out of the upper vents and there is about a 20 degree difference between the driver and passenger side vents. Looking online there are both left and right blend door actuators so I'm thinking of replacing the driver side actuator depending on how hard it is to access. Parts number 17 and 16 in this diagram are the blend door actuators.

https://www.zoomzoomnationparts.com/images/parts/motor/fullsize/5470080.jpg
 
You need to be fairly competent to do that. Mazda start with a heater and build a car round it so you’ll have quite a lot of parts off it.
 
Actually the actuator is located in the driver side foot well and is accessible by removing the kick panel. The passenger side actuator requires removing the glove box but is located in a similar location. When I turn the temperature knob I can watch the arm on the actuator move but I can't tell if the internal mechanism is working. I'm probably going to pull one from the salvage yard this weekend and swap them out.
 
I have a 2013 CX-5 Sport with manual climate control. No air was coming out the passenger side ventilator on either AC or heat, no matter how the climate control was set or the dial on the front (dash side) of the ventilator was turned. Air DID come out of the defogger when the system was set to defrost. Air DID come out the lower vent below the dashboard. Air DID come out the side window defogger.

I took out the the glove box and was going to remove the ventilator but saw the problem. There's a flimsy plastic linkage on the bottom of the ventilator unit that links the front dial to the valve inside the ventilator. It had fallen out of the square hole in the bottom of the ventilator. A small rod from the linkage is supposed to go up into that hole and turn the valve as the dial is turned. The end of that rod is supposed to click into place. Although I repeatedly tried pushing it up in there, it never clicked and would fall out again after just a few turns of the dial.

Long story short, I put some super glue on the end of the little rod and glued it in place. I don't know if it's a long term solution, but I definitely found that IF NO AIR IS COMING OUT THE VENT UNDER ANY SETTING, it may only be the linkage and at worst just the ventilator needs to be repaired/replaced. I presume the design of the driver side ventilator is similar and may be fixed the same way. I learned from a service bulletin (#09-053/16) the labor hours to replace the ventilator is only 0.2 hours. On line you can buy the ventilator for $95 (list price $132).
 
Good to know in case I have problems down the road. I hope the glue works. If it doesn't, I wonder if some kind of rubber glue would work.
 
I have a 2013 CX-5 Sport with manual climate control. No air was coming out the passenger side ventilator on either AC or heat, no matter how the climate control was set or the dial on the front (dash side) of the ventilator was turned. Air DID come out of the defogger when the system was set to defrost. Air DID come out the lower vent below the dashboard. Air DID come out the side window defogger.

I took out the the glove box and was going to remove the ventilator but saw the problem. There's a flimsy plastic linkage on the bottom of the ventilator unit that links the front dial to the valve inside the ventilator. It had fallen out of the square hole in the bottom of the ventilator. A small rod from the linkage is supposed to go up into that hole and turn the valve as the dial is turned. The end of that rod is supposed to click into place. Although I repeatedly tried pushing it up in there, it never clicked and would fall out again after just a few turns of the dial.

Long story short, I put some super glue on the end of the little rod and glued it in place. I don't know if it's a long term solution, but I definitely found that IF NO AIR IS COMING OUT THE VENT UNDER ANY SETTING, it may only be the linkage and at worst just the ventilator needs to be repaired/replaced. I presume the design of the driver side ventilator is similar and may be fixed the same way. I learned from a service bulletin (#09-053/16) the labor hours to replace the ventilator is only 0.2 hours. On line you can buy the ventilator for $95 (list price $132).
Thanks for the report.

The problem you had is different from the OP’s. OP’s still has air flow coming out of the driver-side vent, only the air temperature is 20 degrees lower. Yours had the air flow totally cut off, hence it’s a easy guess that the flap inside was not functioning.

BTW, I really can’t see how the TSB #09-053/16 has anything to do with the problems mentioned in this thread.

TSB #09-053/16 VENTILATOR GRILLE(S) REFLECTION SEEN ON FRONT DOOR GLASS
 
Thanks for the report.

The problem you had is different from the OP’s. OP’s still has air flow coming out of the driver-side vent, only the air temperature is 20 degrees lower. Yours had the air flow totally cut off, hence it’s a easy guess that the flap inside was not functioning.

BTW, I really can’t see how the TSB #09-053/16 has anything to do with the problems mentioned in this thread.

TSB #09-053/16 VENTILATOR GRILLE(S) REFLECTION SEEN ON FRONT DOOR GLASS

Right, the problem wasn't the same. In my case the vent wasn't working at all.

The service bulletin documents the part number of the ventilator, the number of hours needed to replace it, and the instructions for doing so.
 
Right, the problem wasn't the same. In my case the vent wasn't working at all.

The service bulletin documents the part number of the ventilator, the number of hours needed to replace it, and the instructions for doing so.
Here’s a TSB which is more related to the problem here, where Mazda had modified the length of a cable for vent selections, but only for manual AC system.

TSB #07-001/14 A/C MODE SELECTOR DIAL DOES NOT STAY IN "DEFROSTER VENTS" POSTION - (MANUAL A/C ONLY)

645A4506-C190-4C35-B186-7EDBCB3C849F.jpeg

F4EEE6A0-92D5-45C6-B23D-D78113CD1D55.jpeg
 
Actually the actuator is located in the driver side foot well and is accessible by removing the kick panel. The passenger side actuator requires removing the glove box but is located in a similar location. When I turn the temperature knob I can watch the arm on the actuator move but I can't tell if the internal mechanism is working. I'm probably going to pull one from the salvage yard this weekend and swap them out.
How did things go with this issue? I am currently troubleshooting a similar issue in my '22 (hot air coming out of driver vents, much cooler (10 degrees less) coming out of passenger vents.
 
Back