The unofficial Honda Forum and Discussion Board Forums For Honda automobile and motorcycle enthusiasts. - Climate Control, Blend Door Actuator problem

Hi, all! My 2004 Pilot would stick at hot or cold air and wouldn't change. A mechanic told me it was a combination problem of the blend door actuator and the blend door sticking. It was a very expensive repair, so I decided to do what I could.

I removed the actuator, cleaned it out, regreased the gears and added some dielectric to the main gear. It seemed to fix the problem, but it was only temporary. At that point, the problem seemed to come and go. It would get "sticky" and wouldn't move for weeks and weeks, and then would change.

Thinking the actuator motor was going out and was only working sometimes, I bought an aftermarket replacement and installed it. However, I'm having the same issues with the new part. I have played with the blend door lever, and it seems to move well without binding. I unhooked the metal bar from the actuator to the blend door to test the actuator itself, and the actuator still shows these strange issues:

when I turn the climate control knob all the way to "Hi" or "Low," typically the actuator seems to work fine, but will sometimes stick at one extreme
when I turn the climate control knob just a few degrees at a time, the actuator often seems to get stuck moving back and forth just a bit (sort of like a record skipping, if you're old enough to remember what that was like on a turntable) at around 67 and at around 80 degrees

I know wonder if the problem is in the climate control knob itself.

Any ideas or tests I could try to diagnose this issue? Or is it time to take it in to a mechanic?

Thanks!