Thanks for sharing this video. I had this same issue on a 2013 Chevy Sonic LT (pretty much same car). However my actuator gear was not damaged. Instead the vent selection control knob on the climate control cluster was to blame. The male plug connector portion behind the plastic dashboard cover has a pulley wire that is controlled by the selector knob. I found one side of my wire pulled off of the pulley wheel (is supposed to be wrapped around both sides of the pulley. Hope this is helpful to someone out there cheers!
All you have to do is remove the cluster, take that 5.5mm bolt and metal clip off of the white pulley, gently pull that pulley out, it's 9 times out of 10 the rear gear and it will normally fall out, put your new gear on to the rod that it is held on with, make sure the gear lever is into the cam on pulley. You won't have to worry about timing them, even if you do, pull the blower motor fuse and it resets. No need to unbolt anything from underneath. I'll make a video. They all do it, great cars after you fix all of GM'S Poor engineering. I buy a ton of these cars and did it this way the first time and was like I could of got the new gears in when I pulled the white pulley out.
@@sahotavarinder93 Can't wait for the video - Cleary you are only replacing the top lever.... I can't see any way to reach the bottom one from behind the cluster.
hi...I just found out I have the same issue on my 2012 Cruze...no air coming out of defrost vent at all. can you make a video please. can't stand it when someone makes a video, and there hands completely block what they're doing. I know it's tough in a cramped space, but show what you did after each step. thanks
So there are two grooves in that top gear is the top lever supposed to go in the middle groove in the bottom lever supposed to go in the outside groove or do they both go in the middle groove
Okay I got a question So that little trick that you did with the part are you telling me that it fixed the vent that went to the floor the vent that comes through say to your face and the vent that defrost the windshield correct? The reason why I'm asking is because mine comes through the vent to my face the vent to my feet but not the vent to my windshield so that's why I'm asking. Please let me know as soon as possible Thank you.
How the heck you reached that top lever is beyond me. I had to pull the cluster and work on the top one, and wrestle the bottom one from the floor. I screwed up, though, and pinned the bottom door one direction - now I get floor and defrost when it's supposed to be on floor only... ugh! This is a big little job.
wish I would of watched yours first!! I looked at my big white gear for the longest time, didnt see no screw in the middle of it? watched your video got it apart in like 10 minutes? maybe the early cruzes dont have a screw in them? Anyways alls I have to do is put it back together tomorrow!!!hopefully, thanks for the video, wish me luck, thanks again.
Yeah I'm assuming the early ones don't. I've been hammered in the comments about there being a screw and I'm a hack that just broke it all off. Thanks for watching and hope repair goes well!
Is it just me or is that original gear design a clear example of engineered obsolescence, made to break, to keep you paying for repairs. Gdamn greedy gmc ..
Are there two of these levers to replace? From what I'm reading on other FAQ sections there seems like that might be the case? Any further insight on that? Thanks!
Hi buddy, mi cruze 2011 always blow heat air even if i manually move the blend door to cold air it get move itselft to heat side, what could be the problem?
I have been working on this for 2 days. I can get the new aftermarket gears set on the white gear but I have no idea if they're set correctly on the damper gears. I seem to have much more than 1/2 of travel both ways. I get it back together and have vent heat when I should have floor heat. I have no way of knowing where the damper gears were set when the tan gears broke. (Open, closed, or half open) any ideas??
I set the doors in the middle of their travel (they should bind both full open and full closed if they are intact internally) and then put the levers on so they are also set in the middle, if you go to move the levers and they loose engagement with the gear for the damper then they are not set right, the lever will stay engaged with the gear to both full stops for each of the full travel of both doors. That's the only part that should matter, as long as the tits on the levers fall into the grooves of the cam. Hth hard to clearly explain
Whatever setting it was left on last. The system self calibrates once all back together by maxing out the doors travel both ways. All you need to make sure is that the levers are indexed correctly to the spur gears for the blend doors. Hth, thanks for watching!
@@BustedtoBuilt How to you check the index? I have a 2014 Cruze and no air was going to the floor. Yanked it all apart and found that the gear levers were not broken so I put it back together... now floor air blows but defrost stays on. This is some complex stuff!
Their blower motors must be weak. Both my jeep and other car blow hard on all the settings..my cruze blows about like this after you repaired an mine the defrost is still broken. -_-
How did you get the two little plastic pieces to be aligned? I got mine put on and I’m having an issue of the vent not blowing any air. It’s like the little black gear is getting stuck. Doesn’t have enough juice to make the white gear go all the way around for the front vent to work
Just found your video on the def repair. I thought there was a 5.5 screw holding white cam on?? The one you just pride off? Did you loosen or remove that screw first?
Maybe on different application there is a screw on but for any I have done there has only been a snap retainer at the end of the dowel that the cam rotates on similar operation to switching out a roll of mig wire
Likely with your hands and the greatest God given diagnostic tool you have located between your ears. Or you can pay someone with sufficient competence to do a basic level of investigation leading them to a conclusion of why when you turn the dial thingy which should work the electric motor thingy turning the cam thingy pivoting the lever thingies to rotate the mode door thingies directing the airflow where you desire.
My air flow only comes out the main vents in front. I can't get the air to switch to defrost or to the floor.what could it be. I replaced the blower motor my self watching youtube. Is this something I can replace my self to save money
Currently in the middle of doing this… The white gear broke because Chevy put a screw to hold the gear in place.. be careful everyone! Check your year!!
Were you able to replace the large white wheel gear? I didn't see your post prior to working on it and have the same issue now. I have a new gear but the hub is too deep to be able to slip past some other metal parts in order to get the new gear in place. Thinking of shaving a small portion of the gear hub off in order to get it to slip past. Will definitely leave part of the full hub so that the gear will not slide back and forth to much once it is in position.
@@TheNforcer45 I plastic welded the white gear in the areas that had cracked. And shaved off part of the white gear at the deepest point of the hub , like you were saying, and that solved the problem that you are having and that I had
@@ItsAClassicFilmPodcast Thanks for the update, glad you got it working. I did finally get it to fit. Next job is proper alignment, the lower lever is giving me trouble. I need to loosen the black motorized driving gear a bit more and that should give me enough room to shift the lever arm a notch or two.
How is the plastic weld holding up on the white gear? I unfortunately did exactly the same thing today while attempting to repair. Was thinking of doing the same rather than track the part down. And @TheNforcer45, do you have a part # that you ordered just in case?
Defrost is all the way CCW, floor only is all the way CW. Defrost/Vent is a quarter of the way from defrost, Vent Floor is a quarter of the way from floor only. Guessing defrost/floor?
This video almost made me break the white pulley wheel. He never said Anything about there being a bolt holding it on. He said just "pry it out with a flat head screw driver." it wasn't comming off so I watched a different video and it showed you needed to remove the screw🤦 other than that, this video was helpful but about made me break the big white pulley.
Too much background music interfering with what you are talking about. I had to stop watching at 1:23 minutes, sorry about that but the music was irritating and distracting the attention away from the work you were doing. Maybe next time don't include music, or at least lower the volume of your background. I tried that but couldn't hear what you said. 😢
Thanks for sharing this video. I had this same issue on a 2013 Chevy Sonic LT (pretty much same car). However my actuator gear was not damaged. Instead the vent selection control knob on the climate control cluster was to blame. The male plug connector portion behind the plastic dashboard cover has a pulley wire that is controlled by the selector knob. I found one side of my wire pulled off of the pulley wheel (is supposed to be wrapped around both sides of the pulley. Hope this is helpful to someone out there cheers!
Thanks!
All you have to do is remove the cluster, take that 5.5mm bolt and metal clip off of the white pulley, gently pull that pulley out, it's 9 times out of 10 the rear gear and it will normally fall out, put your new gear on to the rod that it is held on with, make sure the gear lever is into the cam on pulley. You won't have to worry about timing them, even if you do, pull the blower motor fuse and it resets. No need to unbolt anything from underneath. I'll make a video. They all do it, great cars after you fix all of GM'S Poor engineering. I buy a ton of these cars and did it this way the first time and was like I could of got the new gears in when I pulled the white pulley out.
Have you made a video of this yet?
Coming here after first snow of season. Bought 2012 this summer
@@sahotavarinder93 Can't wait for the video - Cleary you are only replacing the top lever.... I can't see any way to reach the bottom one from behind the cluster.
hi...I just found out I have the same issue on my 2012 Cruze...no air coming out of defrost vent at all. can you make a video please. can't stand it when someone makes a video, and there hands completely block what they're doing. I know it's tough in a cramped space, but show what you did after each step. thanks
Is it possible to drive up to Brown City and have you fix my 2012 Chev Cruse ???? Please let me know!
I’m pretty mechanically inclined and can rebuild engines but this went way over my head. I’m very confused
My front vents are not blowing air out of them for the defrost but the other vents do have air coming out of them
So there are two grooves in that top gear is the top lever supposed to go in the middle groove in the bottom lever supposed to go in the outside groove or do they both go in the middle groove
If I'm following your question correctly I believe they should both be in the middle
Okay I got a question So that little trick that you did with the part are you telling me that it fixed the vent that went to the floor the vent that comes through say to your face and the vent that defrost the windshield correct? The reason why I'm asking is because mine comes through the vent to my face the vent to my feet but not the vent to my windshield so that's why I'm asking. Please let me know as soon as possible Thank you.
Well done. Thank you very much. Especially the paint can opener tool recommendation.
Thanks for watching a glad you were able to find resourceful!
How the heck you reached that top lever is beyond me. I had to pull the cluster and work on the top one, and wrestle the bottom one from the floor. I screwed up, though, and pinned the bottom door one direction - now I get floor and defrost when it's supposed to be on floor only... ugh! This is a big little job.
They just keep getting tighter and tighter......... and of poorer and poorer quality
What setting does the actuator need to be on to position the levers on the outline? I feel like that probably matters
12:00 position.
wish I would of watched yours first!! I looked at my big white gear for the longest time, didnt see no screw in the middle of it? watched your video got it apart in like 10 minutes? maybe the early cruzes dont have a screw in them? Anyways alls I have to do is put it back together tomorrow!!!hopefully, thanks for the video, wish me luck, thanks again.
Yeah I'm assuming the early ones don't. I've been hammered in the comments about there being a screw and I'm a hack that just broke it all off. Thanks for watching and hope repair goes well!
2013 MALIBU SAME PROBLEM AND IN MICHIGAN UGH GOING TO FIX TOMORROW. WHAT CITY ARE YOU IN ME NOVI MAY NEED YOUR HELP .
Lol in big ol brown city
Is it just me or is that original gear design a clear example of engineered obsolescence, made to break, to keep you paying for repairs. Gdamn greedy gmc ..
Nope it's not just you
Are there two of these levers to replace? From what I'm reading on other FAQ sections there seems like that might be the case? Any further insight on that? Thanks!
Correct, There are two levers
There is one in the top and one on the bottom
Thank you very much for this detailed video!!
Hi buddy, mi cruze 2011 always blow heat air even if i manually move the blend door to cold air it get move itselft to heat side, what could be the problem?
The actuator he unplugs before he moves over to the gears controls that
This was painfull but its done !! Thanks
Very welcome
Mine doesn't switch to defrost. How do I know if I replace the lever behind the dash or the one your showing under the steering wheel?
I replaced both in this video and I would recommend the same for you
How much does this service cost from a shop roughly?
No idea
My Chevrolet Cruze mobile car only blows hot air, even if I manually move the air mixer to the cold side, it only returns to the hot side.
I have been working on this for 2 days. I can get the new aftermarket gears set on the white gear but I have no idea if they're set correctly on the damper gears. I seem to have much more than 1/2 of travel both ways. I get it back together and have vent heat when I should have floor heat. I have no way of knowing where the damper gears were set when the tan gears broke. (Open, closed, or half open) any ideas??
I set the doors in the middle of their travel (they should bind both full open and full closed if they are intact internally) and then put the levers on so they are also set in the middle, if you go to move the levers and they loose engagement with the gear for the damper then they are not set right, the lever will stay engaged with the gear to both full stops for each of the full travel of both doors. That's the only part that should matter, as long as the tits on the levers fall into the grooves of the cam. Hth hard to clearly explain
I need some for 2012 Chevy Cruze. I need link to buy some
I found that tan sput gear on my floor one day wondering where that came from. Also wondering why my heat and AC both come on.
Thanks for watching! Happy it was able to shed some light on your problem
@@BustedtoBuilt Absolutely. I ordered the part from the p/n now I wait.
What did you have your vent settings set to when you aligned your levers with all of the gears?
Whatever setting it was left on last. The system self calibrates once all back together by maxing out the doors travel both ways. All you need to make sure is that the levers are indexed correctly to the spur gears for the blend doors. Hth, thanks for watching!
@@BustedtoBuilt so the calibration is automatic or is there something you have to do to initiate the calibration?
Just have to move the switch thru all the modes once repair is done and it will calibrate
@@BustedtoBuilt How to you check the index? I have a 2014 Cruze and no air was going to the floor. Yanked it all apart and found that the gear levers were not broken so I put it back together... now floor air blows but defrost stays on. This is some complex stuff!
How can I get ahold of you? I think I am near you and have a Cruze with this problem and others.
Shoot me an email arcticcatsnowmobiles@yahoo.com
How much should this cost at dealer I am a 63 year old woman no tools just wanted to know what this entailed great video 🙏
At a dealer I would expect to shell out a few hundred easily
@@BustedtoBuilt thank u appreciate it
Thank you for watching! Hope you are able to go repaired
So this should be the same process as a 2105 Malibu you said?
Correct I believe so
Their blower motors must be weak. Both my jeep and other car blow hard on all the settings..my cruze blows about like this after you repaired an mine the defrost is still broken. -_-
do you need to unplug the battery when working this?
Per repair data, yes. Per any person with common sense, no
I just had the same problem. It seems that's a common problem with the chevy cruze.
Yeah I've replaced quite a few of them now
How did you get the two little plastic pieces to be aligned? I got mine put on and I’m having an issue of the vent not blowing any air. It’s like the little black gear is getting stuck. Doesn’t have enough juice to make the white gear go all the way around for the front vent to work
It's been a couple years since I did this to have any real current memory, if you look thru the other comments it may be answered
Just found your video on the def repair. I thought there was a 5.5 screw holding white cam on?? The one you just pride off? Did you loosen or remove that screw first?
Maybe on different application there is a screw on but for any I have done there has only been a snap retainer at the end of the dowel that the cam rotates on similar operation to switching out a roll of mig wire
Thanks for the video
I have a 2013 Cruze and yes on mine there's a screw holding the big white gear on. Need to take the top dash/speedo off I believe.
What type and size screw did you remove?
5.5mm or 7/32 will work
My ac just blows through the defrost on top of dash how do I fix it
Likely with your hands and the greatest God given diagnostic tool you have located between your ears. Or you can pay someone with sufficient competence to do a basic level of investigation leading them to a conclusion of why when you turn the dial thingy which should work the electric motor thingy turning the cam thingy pivoting the lever thingies to rotate the mode door thingies directing the airflow where you desire.
@@BustedtoBuilt nobody is topping that lol, oh my that is fantastic hahahaha
@@BustedtoBuilt what a turd
How did you get the gears synced up?
I set the doors to the middle of their travel and then installed levers even with outline of hvac casing
My air flow only comes out the main vents in front. I can't get the air to switch to defrost or to the floor.what could it be. I replaced the blower motor my self watching youtube. Is this something I can replace my self to save money
Did you even watch the video?
Currently in the middle of doing this… The white gear broke because Chevy put a screw to hold the gear in place.. be careful everyone! Check your year!!
Were you able to replace the large white wheel gear? I didn't see your post prior to working on it and have the same issue now.
I have a new gear but the hub is too deep to be able to slip past some other metal parts in order to get the new gear in place. Thinking of shaving a small portion of the gear hub off in order to get it to slip past. Will definitely leave part of the full hub so that the gear will not slide back and forth to much once it is in position.
@@TheNforcer45 I plastic welded the white gear in the areas that had cracked. And shaved off part of the white gear at the deepest point of the hub , like you were saying, and that solved the problem that you are having and that I had
@@ItsAClassicFilmPodcast Thanks for the update, glad you got it working.
I did finally get it to fit. Next job is proper alignment, the lower lever is giving me trouble. I need to loosen the black motorized driving gear a bit more and that should give me enough room to shift the lever arm a notch or two.
How is the plastic weld holding up on the white gear? I unfortunately did exactly the same thing today while attempting to repair. Was thinking of doing the same rather than track the part down. And @TheNforcer45, do you have a part # that you ordered just in case?
How long dis this take you to do?
About a half hour
Half hr me to
I just need to know what setting the actuator needs to be on when you start. Please help.
Defrost is all the way CCW, floor only is all the way CW. Defrost/Vent is a quarter of the way from defrost, Vent Floor is a quarter of the way from floor only. Guessing defrost/floor?
@@seannykraynak what setting was it in when you ended up starting?
Thanks.
You're welcome
This video almost made me break the white pulley wheel. He never said Anything about there being a bolt holding it on. He said just "pry it out with a flat head screw driver." it wasn't comming off so I watched a different video and it showed you needed to remove the screw🤦 other than that, this video was helpful but about made me break the big white pulley.
Based on what im reading in my research, some vehicles are held in by a screw, some aren't. What year/model were you repairing?
All I have seen is the back of your hand
Sorry it wasn't what you wanted
@Busted to Built its ok I know there's no room for a man to work on anything on those cars,your video was still helpful.
Why is every single repair on this car some bs 😂
Too much background music interfering with what you are talking about. I had to stop watching at 1:23 minutes, sorry about that but the music was irritating and distracting the attention away from the work you were doing. Maybe next time don't include music, or at least lower the volume of your background. I tried that but couldn't hear what you said. 😢