i have a 2000 mazda 626 lx. the knob to control the temperature swings freely from hot to cold without any form of resistance whatsoever. i assume its supposed to offer some form of resistance it i want to turn it from red(heat) to blue(cold), but it just swings freely. i think something must be broken. i tried to pull it out, but its hopeless. i don't want to break something else. the reason i'm asking this is because my heater is not working and this little problem might or might not be the reason. thanks for your help.

Hi hdammy! ya, that's usually a bad sign. Chances are that your control has failed. It's not an expensive part, and it's not difficult to replace ... once you get to it ... the catch is that getting to any of those controls is a bear. If you are a patient person and you aren't prone to kicking your dog you can try the job, but I would suggest you take it to a dealer and get a quote on the job. At that point you can also make sure that that is in fact the problem. Then you can try to figure out what the price is on your sanity. Good luck!