The first indication of the problem was when I put the blower on full, and the whole dashboard vibrated like hell. Eventually found out that a broken part had worked its way into the fan housing. Guess I am lucky that it did not take out the fan olso. Took it to the dealership in San Jose after 8 months of saying screw it, to be told it was a common fault and it is 6-7 hours labor as the entire dash has to come out. This pissed me off even more as the entire dash was out after the truck was 2 weeks old to fix a "whistle" as a grommet in the bulkhead was not installed correcly and at speed the air blew through and made an annoying whistle. The dumb ass service guy at the dealership where I bought it told me to lower one window to equalize the pressure in the cab, yeh right moron. Never went back to that dealership for services etc. Now the heater problem is fixed, for good I hope and I am going to piss and moan to as many agency's as I can.

Update from Jul 20, 2010: I made a complaint to Dodge, and after three days of deliberation they called back and said "sorry we can't help you, the truck is out of warranty". Go figure eh? I did not expect them to pay for the whole thing but a sorry and yes it is a problem, how about we give you a free service or oil change would have been nice. Have asked an attorney friend of mine what it takes to start a class action suit, or does anyone know of one going. I am pissed this has happpened, but can live with it, but if it goes again, then my truck will be another Silverado that I previously had for 14 years with zero problems.

I called Chrysler Canada, to complain, said that the dealer told me it was at least a 7 to 9 hour labor job. I told them that this should be a recall for safety issues , Chrysler said they are unaware that there was a problem with the doors on 2006 rams. I told them to look on the internet to see thousands of complaints . " Sorry sir, there is no recall yet" Well I am not taking this any more, I will give them one more chance to make good, or I will go to the papers and complain publicly ,, We should of let em go BANKRUPT ,

Cant back what they build, Ill let you know what happens, sometimes there are silent recalls if you Bitch loud enough,

Vern

P.S. it was 100 degrees up here in the great white north, and I saw toooo many late model Rams with all four windows down ( not normal ) When they say RAM TOUGH they mean the owners cause we freeze in winter and roast in summer

Update from Jul 25, 2010: With a little advice from Andrew D from Texas, I think I fixed the problem to my satisfaction. Took about 30 minutes , 1 remove glove box ( no screws here, just open and squeeze two sides in so stoppers clear and out she comes. . 2.. remove 3 screws holding fan and remove fan, 3..look in hole where glove box was @ about 1 o clock and you'll see what looks like a plastic grill; stick your finger in and you'll find your broken door lying flat. 4 put yer hand up where the fan was , and feel for the door , positions for the door are 1 up against the grill towards you ( for fresh air ) or back towards firewall (for recirculated air Max air for ac ) I put the door in recirc position and duck taped it there, that's toward firewall . doesnt matter how ugly your tape job is IT WORKS ''''''''' this means that you can still stick yer fingers through the plastic grill closest to you where cabin air will pass through.
5 put your fan back and glovebox too , Fire that mother up and you got really cold air commin out the vents where its supposed too with great force, also turn heat on it works , defrost works too . It was real easy to fix and I can sure live without outside air ( I got windows and kept 600 dollars in my pocket ) Thanks Vern P

P.S. took longer to write this than to fix it , Difference is Andrew removed the door and I taped it in a closed position

I too had a broken blend door. I researched and saw it was a common problem and I was within the 3 years 36,000 warranty. So I took it into a dealer and they confirmed it was a common problem. Now I bought my truck from a wrecking yard with 7,200 miles on it. It had hit a light pole which barely damaged the front of the truck but came down on the roof caving it in a little. I had it repaired by a professional, it's been a great truck, but has a salvaged title. So the dealer declined the repair due to the title and quoted me $650 for the repair.

I didn't think this was right since the problem had nothing to do with my trucks previous damage. I wrote a letter to Jim Press (the president of Chrysler) with a description of my problem, photos of my truck from the damage, and asked that they cover the repair. It's been about a year and a half and I haven't even gotten a letter back saying I'm out of luck.

I waited about two months after sending the letter and bought the part for $40 and repaired it myself. I haven't had a problem with it since. It's sad they haven't recalled the problem and frustraiting that I didn't even get a reply back. I'm not sure if I will buy another Chrysler product.

The attached pictures are of my repair. One is the new box it's self and the other is just the dash torn down to replace it.

I found a fix on another forum for the blend door breakage. This has actually happened twice on my truck. I bought it last year and the day I was supposed to drive it off the lot, the recirculating door broke.

Well, it broke again today. The easiest and cheapest way to fix it is by removing the three screws to the motor underneath the glove box.

Reach up and you will find your blend door broken. Pull the door out and screw the motor back in place. Took me about 5 minutes to do. Now to find a way to get all over Dodge about this to get a recall done.

Update from Jul 20, 2010: I haven't called Chrysler yet myself but I plan to. I spoke with the dealership where I bought it and it does indeed take 6-8 hours for techs that do not know how to fix this due to the amount of work that goes into replacing the box.

Basically the entire dash comes out in several pieces along with the electronics just to get to the box with the blend door.

If it is unbearable, call around to other Dodge dealers and ask if their techs are savvy enough to know this problem and if what their rate is.

One dealer near me charges $800 for the fix but the dealer that I bought it from would only charge $550 because their techs know where all the hidden screws and bolts are and have done it several times.

Hey, I'm sending this message to all of you with the same (blend door breaks) problem that I have. I strongly believe they should recall this bad design flaw and replace at no cost to us with their newly designed box that has two tabs on it for the blend door to hit not the one tab design that obviously can't withstand the pressure of the door hitting it. They obviously engineered a new box for the 2007 and newer models because there are zero complaints for this problem. This is the biggest defect with the 2002-2006 models especially 2006. Please take the time to do the following steps as I have and if you have any other ideas,please let everyone know so we can put the pressure on Daimler Chrysler to finally own up to THEIR mistake and fix THEIR poorly engineered trucks. This is what I've done so far(remember POWER IN NUMBERS) the more complaints the better,(1) call Daimler Chrysler @1-800-423-6343 and file a complaint to start, you have to file with them first.(2) call the D.O.T Safety Hot-line 1-888-327-4236 your safety issue is the fact that you cannot control the airflow to the windshield for visibility,(fogging. snow-ice etc...) (3) go to www.nhtsa.gov in the column on the left go to file a complaint. The more complaints they see, the more they will investigate it. Any questions you can e-mail me through carcomplaints.com. Lets all put the pressure on these a holes to own up to their mistake that will cost us between 700-1000$ to fix. Thanks for your help in advance, Kevin

Initially I took the truck in and the service tech told me that it's prob just the divert-er, which would cost about 100 bucks. That's the deductible on my aftermarket warranty. He told me that I can just live with it or wait until a few other things went wrong and then bring it back for one big claim. How's that for faith in your product. Anyway, the next day it got real bad. Put the switch on floor and got defrost, put it on defrost and got dash vent. Everything but floor heat....The service tech called and told me that the diverter door was broke and the "proper" was to repair it was to replace the entire box, which involved removing the dash....Holy Crap!! To the tune of 770 bucks!! And it wasn't covered under my aftermarket warranty!! That's 0 for 3!! FML!! It's no wonder the gov't had to bail these worthless boneheads out.

Update from Nov 14, 2010: Had the entire unit replaced to the tune of $770.00 on March 4th of 2010. It is now Nov 11th of 2010 and getting cold. I turned the heater on yesterday and guess what. No heat on the floor. But heat to the defroster. This in on the floor setting......They have to remove the entire dash to make the repairs. Parts came to 73.00 bucks and the rest is labor......There is supposed to be a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty on the repairs so we'll see if they honor that....This is really starting to irk me....

I caled the dealership at 31,800 and told them what was going on. Because it was over 36 months old I had a deductible of 100.00. Hear we are 45 days later, and another deductible. It began to break in June 2009. I just didn't realize it was going till time for heat was upon us. I should have known when the AC was frosting up the windshield in June.. I've never had a Dodge before, and my wife talked me into this. NEVER AGAIN

Update from Oct 17, 2010: Well here I am again and my truck has been in 4 more times for the same thing. Fisrt they replaced the Acuator, Then they replaced the Acuator again. Then after that they tell me their computer said that it was the controls That needed replaced. ( They did that ) That night when I picked up the vehicle. The HEAT/AC agian was not working correctly. Incase you all have lost track, This is now ( 9) times it's been there for the same problem. THEY TELL ME KNOW, They are going to replace Everything ( Including the Houseing)!!! We'll See. I'll keep all of you posted. Rick (NOTE: The Dealership is doining they can. It's not their fault MOPAR buys from crap Suppliers...

So -20 below 0 for a week is not fun with no floor heat...if any of you call dodge consumer complaints make sure and record the conversation...they promised to pay for the fix of my heater and then decided to never call me and close the case...3 out of 5 people that i know personally that have 04-06 rams have had the same exact problems...i took mine into a dealership while it was still under warranty and the tech tried to tell me nothing showed up on the diagnostics so nothing is wrong...i said "here buddy, i'll show you." nope...if it doesnt throw a code we cant fix it...anyway keep fighting the good fight...write to your congressman start and e-petition and send it to the attorney general of your state...lets cause a sh*t-storm and try to get some of our money back...h@ll, we already bailed out Chrysler...time for some reaping.

Good grief...Dodge. Same old s@#t apparently! My feet are freezing when I drive and my eyes are being cooked out of my head. Went to the local shop and he says "you might want to take this to a dealer because it's an expensive fix and they should have a recall by now". Called Deluca Dodge Haverhill, MA and cool as could be they said: "kind of common, no recall, about a thousand to fix it. I asked; "If they know there's a DEFECT then why no recall?" No recall. So WE have to pay for THEIR defective design. "American business ethic" Don't take responsibility until forced to in court. So... I drove to Port City Dodge in Portsmouth, NH. Much nicer people, very sympathetic to my situation. They told me; "I got a mechanic thats getting pretty good at these and we usually can do it for $600 - $700. I still can't get myself to "clean up" after Dodge. So... I dropped the blower assembly, jammed the recirculation door (that had fallen off) into place with a stick. But I don't know what I'll do with the broken blend door(s). I'll wait for the class action suit. HEY DODGE!!! See you in court.

I love my truck and have had virtually zero problems with it...

However, after reading about all the people with multiple blend door failures, I felt compelled to tell everyone that the reason the blend door keeps breaking is because your dealer is being lazy and not replacing everything (Parts) Chrysler sends to repair this issue. The dealer is supposed to be replacing not only the broken blend door but also the housing that the door fits in.

I can tell you exactly what they are doing .... Because it is "faster" the tech is removing the blower motor and reaching in and pulling the broken door out and forcing the new door up in position without actually replacing the part that is causing the blend door to break (The housing) in the first place.

The new style housing has two tabs on it that the blend door rests against.... The old housing had only one tab on one side of the blend door which causes the door to twist and eventually break.

I have found a lot of techs not willing to take the time to remove the dash to do the job right the first time because they know just replacing the door will work for a short period of time and long enough to allow the dealer to bill warranty all over again when it fails in another 3 or 4 months.

My Blend door broke at 12,000 miles (old style housing) and was fixed right the first time by Lakeland Dodge with the new style housing and has worked flawlessly ever since. My truck now has 35,000 miles

I hope this information is helpful.

I wanted to update my last complaint. The recommended fix with plastic epoxy would be great if my Blend Air Door was actually broken. I could see it with the glove box out working just fine. I did take it back to the dealership with my hat in hand to see if I could get them to fix it one more time. Funny, this time they told me it was something completely different than last time. They told me that the ac/heater control unit was bad. Oh yah, that will be $100 as it's covered under your extended service warranty. I'm not buying it. I think that they won't get paid if they don't fix something else. I think there was nothing wrong with my control unit and now I know there was nothing wrong with it. Rather than pay them I paid the parts department $187 for the control unit and installed the new one myself. You RAM owners know how easy it is to get the dash bezel off. A few screws and plugs later I had the new unit it. The new unit did not fix the problem. So not only were they unable to fix the problem 4 previous times, now they've proven that they can't properly diagnose problems. Now the only thing I can really think of to do is to file formal complaints with the dealership and Chrysler, and try to save up to have a real mechanic fix the problem. Oh well. Yet another example of the fleesing of the public.

Never get an extended service plan. They don't cover sh*t. The blend air door keeps breaking. As of today 09 September 2009, it's gone bad 5 times. The first time the dealership covered it under a "good will warranty." Now in my estimation, THEY OWN IT! No cost yet. I am getting tired of loosing my truck for a week only to get it back for a month or two and then have to call and deal with the dealership service department every time it breaks. Oh yah, I'm on my second dealership now that the one I bought it from lost the franchise. Earlier today I spoke with a trusted mechanic shop to find out if they knew of an issue being unrepairable and what could be done. They told me "no," but they had helped people that never did get the dealership to repair their problem. Great, so now I'm possibly looking at having to eat the cost myself. So hears the plan. I'm going to try to kill them with kindness. I will emphasize as much as I can that it seems they've been repairing the symptom without actually addressing the problem. Maybe something else is causing the blend air doors to break. I hope it works. Just FYI, I don't want money. I don't want a new truck. I like my truck. I would just like it to be able to send heat to the floor for more than a few months. If anyone has a similar problem please let me know. Also, if I finally do get a fix I will pass it on. Thanks for letting me vent