heater only blows cold air?

[bikejumpr2020]

I have a 1996 ford explorer limited v8 5.0 and this morning i started it up and let it run for like 10min with the heat on and when i went to get in it, it was freezing, i tried turning the temp down to 60 and turnin it back up, which has worked before, but it was still cold air, its not really cold air but its not warm. some one mentioned something about a blend air door, does any one have an idea of wht this could be? and also after about an hour of driving the air was still cold.

 

[Blue_Oval_Ford]

If it is the blend door thats broken rockauto.com has just the door part made by doorman. There are a few articles on the web on how to replace it by removing the evap housing. from the engine compartment. You could also have a bad heat valve that fits between the water pump and the heater core not allowing coolant to circulate.

 

[TonyC]

I've developed a similar problem in my 94. I can feel the heat in the vent ducts go up and down along with watching the temp gauge cycle up and down. It is like the system is building heat until the thermostat opens, then once it opens, all the heat is lost until the t-stat closes and lets some heat build up again.

Now, it has been ranging from -20 to +20 over the past several weeks, so it is considerably colder than normal. As such, I put a shield over a portion of the radiator to try and reduce the amount of airflow through it. That seemed to help some, but not much. I have a hard time beleiving that anyone ina colder climate than mine would ever have this type of trouble, and I never had any problems in the past.

Is there someway to check the control valve without buying a new one? Are there some other things I should check? I replaced the thermostat, radiator, and water pump last year to eliminate an overheating problem. Now I can't get enough heat into the dang thing. BTW, the thermostat is a 190 degree unit.

 

[bikejumpr2020]

i opened my glove compartment and pried up the blend door actuator and now its blowing heat!

 

[Millertime1987]

I couldn't go a winter in MN without a heater for long. I went a week or so here without the heater then the subzero temps hit and i decided then that the 300 plus doller repair for the fix was well worth it.

 

[cfd911]

blend door

i had a similar problem had heat after driving about 30 min then all of a sudden it started getting cold , and the heat would vary from cool to warm.. i checked the blend coor it seems that that is a common problem that everybody thinks is the only problem, well i have found a new problem, if you ve ever opened up the blend door actuator you will notice theres a motor and a circuit board with an ic chip and some simple diodes and resistors and so on... Well i opened up the actuator reconncted the wires and started the truck, and noticed the the motor would wander and jerk back and forth, so therefore the circuit board was not receiveing a good signal from the temp dial or there was a problem with the acuator , my guess would be that the pc board has a bad component and it s time to replace the actuator, but with some logic you and figure it out check the blend door for damage then move on but just a word of caution just because you don t have heat doesn t mean the blend door is broken....

 

[cnazal1022]

I've noticed on a lot of explorers after 95,000+ miles that the acuator goes out..i went to the mechanic and another lady was with the same problem..so I guess I will have to pay out he $300 to fix it..ugh