Was working on my AC when I found a linkage that looked out of place. Yup sure enough it had broken free from its mount and fell down.

So the piece it goes into has broken plastic? Im thinking gluing a piece of plastic there to support the rod.

Whatcha think?​​​​​​​

That rod looked out of place! Why would it go into that box??

Hmmmmm. Im thinking this needs to point the other direction

Damn. The plastics busted.

 

What year car?

If 2000 - 2002 I have a replacement as this happened to me and I did crazy glue, JB weld, nothing will hold long term.

I wound up selling the car before getting to swap it out.

Take it from me...

Let me know. If your interested PM me.

Good luck.

 

How much room do you have for access? Glue by itself won't last. I'd suggest a repair piece fabricated from sheet metal. Secure the repair piece to the remaining plastic with a couple of small bolts and nuts. Don't use sheet metal screws, as this will tend to crack the remaining plastic. Drill through and use bolts/nuts.

The hardest part will be drilling through the remnant of the plastic tab. You'd likely need a small 90 degree drill. A Dremel with a 90 degree attachment may be a better option that trying to get a full-sized drill up there.

 

Well thats not good. I tried supergluing two plastic washers together and they did weld to each other. I have a couple of pieces im going to test. If I can get the superglue to melt the plastic, this will hold. I sanded the surfaces and degreased with isopropyl.

What did you try? Did you try and scab a piece into the broke area? Im going to miunt a washer to the back of the broke flange so itll stop the rod from pulling thru



Various plastic pieces im testing. I will superglue one to the backside of the broken piece so the white plastic rod clip wont be able to pull thru

These pieces fused well. Plus lots of surface area to stick to the back of the mounting flange

 

Its under the dash behind the glove box. And im right handed so coming in thru the passenger door makes me use my retarded left hand

 

I used one of those nuts on the end of the rod after using plastic weld to mate the broken piece.

That failed the first time I pressed the recirc button.

Then I tried the plastic fuse, drilled a hole and tried again to put a push nut on the end of the bar.

That worked for about 3 days and failed.

Trust me, you need to swap out that door with a replacement.

 

Have faith!!

 

Fingers crossed.

 

I am sure the washer i superglued will not come off because its basically welded to the other piece. i am concered the added washer thickness may not allow the retention clip to expand and grab an edge but if that happens i have a plan.

I should have drilled out the hole a lil larger and then glued a washer with the right sized hole on the other side. But i can still do this if the plastic piece falls out.

 

Interesting to see how well the repair holds up. I tried to repair some plastic panels on another vehicle, but much to my dismay, I found plastic cement (model airplane glue) didn't weld or melt in at all. I had fitted some styrene patches on the backside, but they popped off the first time the panel flexed. The glue had melted nicely into the styrene patch, but had no effect (and adhesion) to the OEM panel.

My hunch is manufacturers avoid styrene or similar "chemically weldable" plastics to limit smoke and flammability issues. Just a guess, though. Might be a cost or durability issue.

If this repair lets loose, I wonder if you could still come up with a metal repair piece, mechanically fastened versus bonded. I had previously suggested a flat plate, but that requires fastener holes drilled at a right angle into the remnant of that tab. A better idea is a longer piece, but with the far end bent to form a 90 degree flange. You could install a couple of fasteners straight through this flange, with no need for an angle drill in very tight quarters.

If this repair breaks, you could always manually position the door while you decide how to proceed. If you mostly take short trips in hot weather, the door probably spends most of the time in the recirc position. You might be able to secure it this way with a small block of foam rubber. Or if the door is usually in the fresh air position (longer trips in cool weather), secure it that way with some tape. If you need the defroster any time soon, definitely put the door in the fresh air position, as recirc will eventually cause the windows to fog.

 

If I recall when mine broke the air sucks the panel kind of shut but it makes a horrible swoosh noise w/o that tension on the door (lever arm from the recirc motor) whether in recirc or not.

Hope this fix works...