Heater Coil or Blend Door Actuator

My wife owns a 2004 Ford Explorer with 92k miles. Today we went to turn the heater on and air continues to blow cool. I added coolant and the heater hoses seem to be hot. I have been doing some research and it seems a lot of people have been having trouble with the blend door actuator. However, my car has NOT been making that clicking noise a lot of people have been hearing. It makes me wonder if the issue could be the heater coil or something else. I don't want to spend the $80 for the actuator and it not fix the problem.

A few things that might be relevant??

1) when changing controls from foot to foot+defrost to defrost, there doesn't seem to be a change in location from the air, it all comes from the defrost. However, all of the air controls work on the other side of the dial. max ac, face, etc...

2) When changing the temp dial from cold to hot, I can hear a decrease in air flow, like you would normally hear when switching dial from cold to hot, the only problem is the temp does not change.

Any idea which of these elements should be replaced? I definitely don't want to spend $600+ on getting this fixed.

I got a new one for $54. The clicking noise is a broken gear but the small motor may be bad. Take out the Blend Door Actuator and turn the door by hand to see if heat comes out.

You will need to take off the right side driver kicker/console and the piece under the steering wheel. you will need a 8+" 1/4 extension to get all the bolts out it will take 15 mins or so to get them its tight.

This should help you find a way to get the bolts out. (Do not cut like he did) no need to cut.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294140&highlight=Blend+Door+Actuator

Yeah, I saw that write up. I just want to make sure that's the problem before I go through all of that trouble.

Are you checking the heater hoses on the firewall side of the heater core valve ?

Also, Sometimes the blend door will be bad without the grinding noise. The issue with the defrost / floor vent won't have any effect if you get heat or cold air, it will only controls where it goes...

N1265 said:

Are you checking the heater hoses on the firewall side of the heater core valve ?

Also, Sometimes the blend door will be bad without the grinding noise. The issue with the defrost / floor vent won't have any effect if you get heat or cold air, it will only controls where it goes...

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All I had was COLD as hell till It got fixed.

I will double check the heater hoses tomorrow to make sure I was checking the right things. I've never really worked on cars so I'm learning as I'm going. Pretty sure they were pretty hot though.

What else should I check? How do I make sure it's not the heater core?

Good news! The heater started making the clicking noise yesterday. I know what the probelm is now. I'm going to use the great tutorial from the site over the weekend!

Thanks!

nickp33 said:

Good news! The heater started making the clicking noise yesterday. I know what the probelm is now. I'm going to use the great tutorial from the site over the weekend!

Thanks!

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Good luck & be sure to let us know how you make out.