[avw]

Hey Folks,

A couple of days ago I started noticing a repetative "thunk thud, thunk thud" noise coming from behind the center dash screen. Any idea what this is? Baffles for climate system? It's surprisingly loud and goes on for 30 seconds or so.

If this has been addressed, please forward me to the right thread.

Thanks in advance.

-Alex

 

[Stefan]

I have this for a Year or so...
It never got louder and only comes on wake up... I think it's some gate for the AC air flow.

My dealer fold me, that he can not find id... as it only comes ones out of 10 starts, he might be right...

I'm able to ignore it

 

[Lormax]

When does the noise happen? Over bumps? At startup?

 

[avw]

it's only after start up...between the time I press the start button and then it seems to stop after I start moving. It's pretty loud and not unlike the residual climate "rest" heating system pump sound on my old Mercedes...just MUCH louder. I also feel the vibrations from the dash. If others have lived with it for a year, I won't worry about it. It would be nice to know what it is though.

 

[Lormax]

Next time your in the car, after startup, go to the climate controls screen. Turn on the ac with the blower motor up to a decent speed, say 5 or 6. Then hit one of the buttons that changes where the air comes out of. Does the air outlet actually change?

 

[Harleyguy]

The AC unit will squeak on start up for about 45 seconds if the shade system that controls the air flow is broken.I think I still have a sound clip of the noise if that will help

 

[avw]

Thanks guys. I have not yet had problems with the directional adjustments. I basically have 50% of the time control over cooling and heating since I got the car. Some days it forces the cabin AC on, regardless if it's turned on or not...other days it feels like the heater is on, even in stealth mode, when the system is OFF. I'll play around with it some more this week and see if I can make the thuds stop. I know the squeeking sound and occasionally hear that if I start up the climate system from the OFF position. The thud feels much stronger than that.

 

[avw]

Ok, now my climate control has ever more of a mind of it's own. 95% of the air flow is now always going to the windshield. To even feel any kind of flow from the middle vents/dash, the fan needs to be at 10. I don't ever get anything to the floor. Nothing seems to change it. I suspect the thud noise is some kind of fault in the flap solenoids or the scrolling blind/vent adjustment thingy. I remember reading a thread about how to swap out the flap motors or to test them, etc. Please direct me to that thread, if you know of it. Thanks. Any other or new ideas?

 

[Lormax]

It's the outlet mode actuator/door in your hvac assembly.

 

[Harleyguy]

I guess I was pretty close wonder how I knew . The damper motors aren't the easiest to get too and from past HVAC units I've replaced it's not the motors that go bad it the blend doors or the sliding shade which controls air flow breaks which I suspect is what happened to yours .

I consider replacing the HVAC unit on my top three pain in the butt jobs on the Karma . Later HVAC Fisker engineers updated how the motors control the blend doors . It has to do with how the motors are powered and how the blend doors are moved .
Damper motors work by steps what you command and what the actual position the damper motor is in . If you command a certain position the damper motor counts the steps it takes to get to the correct position well if the motor doesn't count correctly it over powers the door and it breaks .

Most car manufactures use this design and the Karma is no different I've dealt with this type of design for years

 

[Lormax]

I consider replacing the HVAC unit as my #1 pain in the butt jobs. I'd love to know what your other two are Harleyguy?