How do you remove the dash in a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500?

Answer 1

Assumption is the dash is probably same as a 2003 on which we worked today. Before you start, give serious consideration you have the tools, some basic knowledge of the various parts, and plenty of time. This is a project, once we started, that I had second thoughts about maybe having used the dealer.

The second part is what you are trying to do/repair, as much of the under-dash can be reached with minimal work. Only if your really have to remove a major portion will this become a "project".

I lost heat to defrost/floor, but had dash vents working, fan worked and temp control worked.

First thought was the switch control unit - which was pretty easy - just remove the bezel around the radio/heater controls. If you are looking for the dash panel actuator it is located directly behind the heater control switches, and the actuator can be changed from there.

If it's the defrost actuator, a little more work, but if can be reached with moderate headstands. Located closest to the accelerator pedal. It is covered by a steel plate, and my actuators were held by two screws - not three. One is reachable from floor near pedal, but the other is a bear. We finally drilled a large 5/8 hole through the steel plate for a straight shot to the screw with Phillips screwdriver.

If it is the temp control actuator, it is located to the right of the center console. You can identify it as it has a long metal rod that moves the doors from heat to cold air.

Finally if it is the recirculation actuator, it is behind the dash, on top of the airbox and "IT" needs to have most of dash removed to get to it.

If the actuators work, the flapper doors can be the problem (as in my case) where the shaft had split and the door would fall back to closed position from an open position. Again - complete removal of the dash required!

One of the fellows helping me was an 18 year veteran of auto repair, and for both of us it was our first dash removal. Started at about 11:30 in the morning, and we finally had the flapper door out by about 6:00 PM that evening. Now must wait to order the part, since local Dodge dealer doesn't stock the door.

While one of these reasons "might" be the need for you to remove dash, as we worked, we found so many screws with heads on the inside of the dash. Figured they had been bench assembled, and then the unit was installed as a sub assembly.

Briefly ....... but NOT IN EXACT ORDER OF REMOVAL...........

Remove bezel around radio/heater controls

Remove ash tray

Remove cup holder

Remove plastic panel from below cup holder

Remove both left and right side A pillar grab handle trim

Remove the top dash cover closest to windshield

Remove the padded dash top

Remove instrument bezel and panel

Unbolt and lower steering column ( we eventually removed it)

Remove all plastic panels covering lower portion of dash

CAREFULLY remove air bag on passenger side. (unhook negative battery cable first)

Don't screw this one up - it's probably $1,000 to replace and you DON'T want it

to go off during removal

Need to unplug a lot of plugs - instrument panel, headlight, heater controls, remove radio, glove box light, air bag wiring, etc.

Once you get the stuff stripped, you will find yourself with a large (about 3 inch diameter steel tube running across from side to side. You need to unbolt this from door frames on both side. 3 bolts on driver side, 3 on passenger side. Also need to unbolt the support struts supporting the round tube up near windshield.

Remove/unplug three dash speakers

Unfasten wiring harness from behind metal cross bar.

Remove two bolts at bottom of steel plate behind radio near floor, and two bolts underneath the mount for the stearing column. They are recesed so they are easy to miss.

If you have removed all screws, bolts, steering column nuts, etc. you will be able to rotate the steel cross tube toward you and lift from between front doors. Carefully slide out passenger side door without ripping fabric seats or scratching any door panels with sharp edges of stamped steel components.

Once this is removed, you can unscrew, and disconnect the plastic duct work for the vents, defroster, and side window defrosters.

After removal of all of this, you will have gained access to the top of the air box where you can access the actuator doors for removal/replacement.

Reinstall in reverse order - but keep in mind all the electrical plugs, ground wires, and the many, many plastic panel screws.

A 7 mm small and deep socket, and box/open wrench, Phillips screwdriver, torx screw driver, 10 mm wrench, hammer, very large screwdriver, and a couple of needle nose pliers are needed - along with drill to make hole in metal plate to get to screw. Also a magnet to retrieve both screws and dropped socket heads.

In two cases, we simply had to bust the plastic tab holding defrost duct to dash panel top as there was no way we could get to the screw heads. I'm guessing we easily had 50-60 small 7 mm head screws used to hold plastic panels in place! The back seat was filled with plastic parts, speakers, radio, "A" pillar grab handles, plastic vents, etc. The two top panels for the dash, the facing dash plastic panel, steering column, steel framework behind dash, is stored in the pickup bed. And now we wait for the inexpensive flapper door part to arrive. Hopefully we both remember where all the electrical plugs go, and we manage to find most (probably not all) of the screw locations. In the end, we are also praying the flapper door and actuator motor were the problems.

I have heard of folks saying the cost to do this by a dealer was quoted $1100 to $1500, and had several times thought maybe I should have just taken the truck in to the dealer for repair. I think they probably would have followed the same process to remove everything to get where we are now. Hopefully during the coming week we can get the part, install it and start reassembly.

I cannot stress enough that we really were in over our heads on this one. Had it not been for friend's experience, knowledge and confidence in some of the areas of this process, I think I would have taken it in to dealer.

One thing that might be helpful, is to download the '04 Ram service manual. Unfortunately, it doesn't show a lot of these detailed steps, but gives reference drawing to major parts.

Another Approach:

I had a similar problem with my 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT QUAD CAB where the recirculation flapper door was broken and no air would come out of the dash vents. At first, I thought the fan was going out since it was making noise so I pulled the fan from under the glove box and discovered the problem.

The actuator motor had apparently turned too much and broke the flapper door pivot shaft, and a small piece of plastic was flying around inside the fan. Once I removed the plastic, the noise went away and the fan was working fine. I then used a piece of stiff wire to hold the door closed as a temporary solution since I need my AC as it was right in the heat of the summer.

I called the dealer several months later explaining the problem and they immediately knew which part needed to be replaced as they had seen the same thing many times before. They sold me a new duct assembly piece for about $60 that included a new actuator motor and flapper door. I didn't even bother to ask how much they would charge me to replace it. I questioned them a bit about what it took to replace and they made it sound pretty easy, except for the part about removing the dash. I just figured it couldn't be too tough, and I refuse to pay several hundred $ to have someone else do something I can do myself So, I brought the part home and started to research when I found this post.

After reading this post, I nervously started to tackle the project of removing the dash to get at the duct assembly which sits right behind the glove box. About 2 hours into the job of removing the dash, I got to thinking that there must be a simpler way to fix this and I didn't really feel like the idea of tearing the whole truck apart to replace the entire assembly when I knew the problem was just the broken flapper door.

So, I looked closely at the new part and figured out how to remove the actuator and flapper door from the duct assembly. I knew that if this could be done from below the dash through the hole where the fan mounts, I could just replace the flapper and avoid removing the whole dash and duct assembly.

During this process, I discovered the factory defect. As I was testing the actuator to make sure I didn't install it in the wrong position and break the new flapper, I noticed that it appears to rotate a lot more than the 90 degrees it takes to actuate the flapper. The old duct assembly has a single plastic stop on the outside that limits the actuator movement and stops the motor while preventing stress on the flapper door when moved to the closed (non-recirculating) position

The new duct assembly has 2 limit stops, 90 degrees apart which stops the actuator motor at both open and closed positions and prevents any stress on the door. Therefore, because the original part only had a single stop on one side, the door became over-stressed in time and broke when the truck was about 3 years old.

Well, I decided that even though the 2nd stop doesn't exist on the old duct assembly, I could replace the flapper door and hope that it doesn't break again, at least not for a few more years. I figured I could always buy another $60 assembly and take on the dash removal/replacement project another time. I was careful to make sure the actuator motor was in the open (recirculating) position and then installed the door at that position. About 30 minutes later, I was back in business and replaced the parts I had removed attempting to remove the entire dash.

The whole process is pretty simple following these steps:

Remove glove box. Unplug and remove fan assembly under glove box by removing 3 torx head screws.

Reach up into the duct and extract the broken flapper door. Next, turn on the ignition and turn the heater control to recirculate position, making sure the actuator rotates clockwise until it stops.

Then, unplug the actuator connector and 2 Phillips head screws to remove actuator. Remove the white plastic adapter (which plugs into the door pivot shaft and rotates the flapper) from the duct assembly (this is the trickiest part since you have to use 2 hands to remove the connector which snaps into place).

Slide the new flapper door into the duct and re-install the adapter making sure the door is in the open position and the stop tab is 90 degrees clockwise from the plastic limit stop on the duct. Check flapper and adapter stop position by rotating the door counter-clockwise to the closed (non-recirc) position, making sure the stop doesn't prevent the door from closing all the way.

Finally, replace the actuator and 2 screws and plug in the electrical connector. Replace the glove box and fan and away you go.

This entire fix could probably be done in less than an hour, know that I know how easy it is. Next time it breaks, I may just do the same thing (buy the $60 assembly and steal the new flapper door instead of removing the entire dash to replace the entire actuator duct assembly, which is what the dealer would do and will likely charge hundreds for labor. Too bad they won't just sell the flapper door, which is really the only broken part.

Obviously, Dodge knows this is a factory defect since the new duct assembly has been improved, and it may even be covered by the factory warranty. But if it usually doesn't break for the first three years, most owners will have to pay the dealer to fix it. I seriously doubt they would ever recall this part, since it isn't a safety issue.