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Every time I turn my Ex off and start is again I have to turn my A/C completely off then hit the A/C and Recycle button to get air to blow out of the panel vents or it will automatically blow out of defrost vents no matter what setting it was on when I turned ignition off. Is there a blend door actuator/some sort of air diverter on these like my old Yukon XL had? On the Yukon the driver and passenger vents would blow hot and cold.
I missed this when you posted. I suspect you have a vacuum leak, but I am also not all that familiar with the 03 climate control updates vs. my 2001. When this was happening to me, I found that I had bumped a vacuum hose off the "max-AC-assist valve". It was taking a few seconds for the vacuum pump to build up enough vacuum to re-seat the blend door to the position on the dial. Just about 10 seconds or so. After building vacuum, it would then re-route the air from defrost to the vents and be back to normal (except the vacuum pump was running more than normal). Listen for your vacuum pump running when you start it up. If it isn't running, it could be your climate control system.