Hey all, new to the site. I have an 05 pathfinder with auto hvac. Whats happening is there is a sound like the door to deflect the air to what vent to come out is making noise. I'm assuming this is called the mode door. when I set the mode to come out of the vents, it may come out of the defrost. if I set it to come out of the defrost it may come out of the floor. it also switches mid stream on its own to whatever vent it chooses, I do not touch the dash panel at all. even with the key off I can hear the doors or motor or whatever it is moving. the sound is like when you flick one of those spring door stops in bathroom or bedroom, the ones that keep the door from hitting the walls. im leaning on replacing the mode door motor, but I would like to know if theres a check of somesort to see if the computer controlling the settings is operating correctly? or is the mode door motor the computer and control motor combined into one? any advice would be great, thanks in advance. there doesn't seem to be a problem with the temp. that's operating well. whatever I set it to, cool, warm, hot, it comes out that temperature, just doesn't come out of the correct vent in the dash. i found the service manual in the sticky and am gonna check that out a bit too. sorry for the long post, thanks!

I have same issue 2005 LE

Each mode door has it's own actuator (motor) and I believe there are four of them on the front system. They are not expensive and Dorman makes them on the aftermarket. Usually they go for around $35 each and they are all different. Replacing them requires removing the entire dashboard; thank your friendly, Nissan engineers for that! They are controlled by the climate control system. Testing requires a factory service manual and a scan tool that can access the HVAC system and you'll should be able to work each of the doors manually with the scan tool to test them in Active Test mode. There is also a self-diagnostic mode, which you may be able to access without a scan tool, but you'll have to consult the service manual for the procedure. Bad actuators are certainly not unheard of on Nissans and my theory has been if I have to remove the dash to replace one, them I'm going to replace all of them while I have it out. I don't care for doing a job twice.