I have a 2003 Dodge Stratus. Several times, it has gotten into the mode where the air only exits from the defroster vent. Each time this happens, I have gone to my local salvage yard, and got a used climate control unit to install. This seems to fix the problem for awhile, until it happens again.

One time when I was having this problem, I took the car to a shop, thinking that one of the door actuators was bad. The shop replaced the control unit with a refurbished one from Dorman, and that fixed the problem until a year later.

Does anyone know why this keeps happening, and what I can do? I am concerned that the salvage yard will eventually run out of these, and then I won't be able to fix the problem any more. It used to be that the auto parts stores would sell the Dorman part for under $100, with a core. Now the price has doubled.

Any suggestions are welcome.