Outside cold air thru glove compartment

Need a little help/info. 2004 Explorer XLT 4.0, 152K miles, 4x4, second owner. I bought it with 20K miles.

The a/c and heater cut out when the engine has a load on it. Up a hill, it cuts out and comes back on when load is gone. Speed up to pass or get on hiway, cuts out and comes back when I maintain speed. Now I have OUTSIDE cold air flowing through the glove compartment. The passenger side is freezing and the dash is as cold as ice.

The rear heat and a/c are fine. Help me out please. Thank you.

welcome and that sux bout ur x

Wow I was about to make a topic about this just today!
I just got back from a 900 mile trip this weekend in the U.P. of Michigan, and it was almost unbearable. Cold air from outside coming straight out from behind the glove compartment. Heat seemed to work fine though...

Please anyone have any ideas??

i posted much of the same thread about a year ago on this. No one seemed to have this same problem till now. When the heat setting is on #4 i get no cold air coming in at all. Seems to be the lower the blower setting it's on, the more cold air that comes in. I've had to put towels in the glove box to prevent the cold air from coming in. This summer i had the blend door replaced as well (was not switching from defrost to panel etc)...so the whole dash had to be taken apart and the actuator replaced..thought this might change the issue of cold air coming in, but it didn't.......any help or insight on this problem would be great help

what was confusing to me was that the air definitely came in faster the faster we drove. This made me think there was a hole in the firewall or something, maybe a grommet came loose or something like that. I haven't had a chance to really check it out yet. I work at a tire shop with some mechanics and I already talked to one briefly but he didn't have any definitive answers. I'll have to get my car in there soon and see if we can look it over. Anyone else with this issue or know what it could be from?? It's not encouraging that the blend door didn't fix the issue..
Jwright I'll have to see if mine does the same on max setting

I have a 2003 XLT 4.6L with front and rear ac and heat. I'm getting a cold left drivers foot. My blower is working properly but my defrost and lower heat are not putting out the volume of air they should. If I have only defrost on, heat will still come out the bottom. I believe there's a door not closing properly, both actuators are moving properly (the two to the right of the radio). Where is the other actuators at?? This problem drives me crazy and the dealership wants 500 to tear dash off. JIM

I got a response from a guy at this site, my comment was the last one and he already replied.
http://www.denlorstools.com/autoblog/2008/08/2003-ford-explorer-ac-not-cold-enough/#comment-611
JWright4 is this what you had replaced? or was it something different? he calls it the fresh air door with the bottom door fallen off.

well I just went out to the car and checked and if you put your fingers into the grate behind the glove box I could feel the door and move it around, it had definitely fallen off. So yeah I'm guessing that's the problem

what was replaced on mine was the plenum box door actuator. it's the piece that moves the door to switch from defrost/panel/floor. That is what was broke on mine, so i was only getting air in through the panel. I did tell them about my concern of cold air coming through the glove box during cold weather and they said that problem is also why that was occuring. They said that would fix it. I am still getting cold air though coming through the glove box so they were obviously wrong. I do not get cold air though if the blower is on the highest setting. What you have found out makes complete sense though. I would have thought with half a brain the "tech" at ford would know what i was talking about. Sometimes though i feel there is very bad communication between the service advisors and the tech....... In your research, the fresh air door makes complete sense. Does the replacement of this require the whole dash to be taken apart, as my Plenum door actuator did?? Thankfully i have an extended warranty.

Yup, it looks like replacement requires exactly what is on that website. The dash looks like it only has to be swung out of the way though, and not completely removed. I'm having trouble finding the replacement part for it though. I work at a shop and I can probably have one of the mechanics do this for me for a case of beer or something, but the problem is I don't know what part to order.

It does make sense though, that if this door has fallen off, it will be constantly letting in air from outside that would normally be blocked by the door, correct?

This is why I joined the forum today!
I have the exact same cold air problem on my 05 XLT. Cold air is poring through the glove box. Please keep us posted on your parts and service required. Hopefully it won't cost a lot for any of us.
Thanks
Terry

I'll ask one of the techs at work tonight if we can find the part for it on the computer, and we'll go from there.

I'm really surprised there aren't more posts about this problem.

very eager to know what you find out..thanks

I have also just joined this forum to follow along. My 2004 explorer has had the same cold air blowing into the glove box for the past year. If nothing else, at least I feel somewhat comforted knowing that I am not crazy and that other people have the same problem.

If it is of any use, the air conditioning in my explorer didn't work this summer. I tried recharging it once, but it didn't completely work. For some reason, after I recharged the AC there was colder air from the passenger side vents and basically outside temp air coming from the driver vents. That's when I admitted defeat.

Well one of the techs may give it a crack this weekend, I think this is the part, but I'll most definitely double check before pulling things apart.
http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPag...10&Description=Heater+Blend+Door+Repair+Latch

I'm also glad more people are speaking up

Well it sounds like it will be a bit of work to do it, but at least the part is cheap! I have also found that part on ebay, but not for cheaper.

I looked at my explorer closely last night. When switching to and from MAX A/C there is no visible door movement inside the "cage" area as pictured on the other site (link above). So I am like 95% sure that is what is wrong with mine. I can feel the foam of the door down at the bottom of the box thru the cage side. It must have also broken off and fallen to the bottom.

As a test, I removed the plastic cowling below the windshield on the outside. (removed windshield wipers then popped off plastic) This is the main outside air duct which supplies the broken box. I then stuffed shop rags in the duct, sealing it off completely from outside air. What this did was dramatic. At 70 mph I no longer have any noticeable air leak thru the glove box. So clearly the broken door is the cause for that. However, there was one severe side effect. By blocking the outside air duct, the car now only has recirculate to draw air thru the heater. Because of this, the car fogs up very quickly. So I would not recommend this as a band-aid fix.

With one component showing signs of poor design/construction on more than one vehicle, does anyone know how something becomes a technical bulletin for Ford to pick up the dime on repairs?

Ok, here is my 02....I had the wheel well liners off last week, and up in the dr jamb area is a panel that can be moved by hand. I had moved it upon reinstalling the liner. Now I have cold air coming in the cab, freezing cold air! I am going to remove the liner and return the panel back to its original position. I did not think it was of any importance at the time. Now I know better. This might or might not be a solution for some of you, but it is a free and simple job to do.

Just drove over to Lexington KY over Christmas and the wife said " I am freezing over here there is cold air pouring in" I was driving and it was a crisp 90 degrees on the drivers side. So it looks as if I also have this problem and just found out since it was the first long trip in cold weather we have taken. BTW it was 5 degrees out. LOL she was covered up with a blanket freezing and I was sweating it was so hot. My blend door is broken as I have either ALL hot or all Max A/C and no in between but I have yet to install my Rockauto replacement door yet.

05exp said:

With one component showing signs of poor design/construction on more than one vehicle, does anyone know how something becomes a technical bulletin for Ford to pick up the dime on repairs?

Click to expand...

As many blend doors that are broken and radios that have lost their display I would suppose it would take a group of people to start a "Class Action" lawsuit just to get Ford to even acknowledge that there is a design problem in the explorers. The problems is there are many of us here who know about our explorer's "Problems" there are 100 times as many driving around who have no idea why their explorers are leaking in cold air or why their radio's are broken they just think stuff broke on "Their" explorers and have no idea it's ALL explorer's.
If anyone would like to contact a lawyer to see about starting a class action suit I would be glad to assist all I can but with my work schedule (Mon-Fri 2PM-2AM) It's almost impossible for me to get this started.

OK Update:
If anyone wants to get this started here is a law firm specializing in Class Action suits.
All we need to do is fill out this form on this page http://www.class-action-litigation.org/class_action.asp to get started.
I'll fill it out and everyone with a broken blend door/radio display problem also fill it out and let's see if we can get Ford to fess up to the design flaws in the Explorer.