Blend door, it's not just us X's

[wpurple]

from this months Popular Mechanics...

SERVICE TIPS




• Got nothing but warm air coming from the climate control system of your 1996-2003 Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable or Lincoln Continental? According to Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) 02-23-6, there is a blend-air door in the plenum that's prone to binding and not moving in response to its control. Replace the door with a revised part that won't warp on the first hot day.

 

[alphabets13]

but it's still all ford products.

 

[FourXFred]

cool, its good to see that ford quality controll is awful across the entire product line, not just on ex's, i guess.

 

[wpurple]

I think this is when consistancy is BAD

 

[twomedicine]

rotten choice of matls

It's a rotten trick.

Seems like with today's advanced technology, and computer modeling the correct design and the best suited material used in the door's manuf. should have been the outcome.

From articles I have seen on this subject it was a poor choice of the material used that is causing all the failures. Somebody did not seem to understand the properties of the material used, or perhaps the design did not consider the physical properties of the material used. I believe it was ABS that was used in the part.

It's a bad deal for sure. A design defect.

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

Lincoln Mark VIII owners are going through the same problem too. But they had it easy. Replacing them is a breeze compared to what we have to do.

 

[Tony H]

Probably a case of Upper Managment telling the designer that he doesn't need to used the fiber filled ABS, "the cheap stuff is fine".

I deal with managment telling me how to "improve" my designs all the time. Always a power struggle.

All to save a few cents. Eventually the stuff is brought back to be done correctly but I get the egg on my face AND it costs the company more then if it was done right from the get-go.

 

[twomedicine]

safety issue too

Could be a safety issue and maybe there will be a recall notice after some unfortunate X driver with a defective and stuck blend door looses the ability to defrost a windshield who also is involved in an accident of unfavorable consequenses.

Statistical Quality/Process control assures that darn near everyone during the affected period got perfectly good, badly designed parts! Six sigma at work

Mine I don't think is at risk for failure due to the date of manf....but....I know I'd rather be spending a $1000 for improvements rather than on a blend door repair....or save that cash for future repairs of the X's other weak spots, such the a transmission, or replacing those noisy "marbles in a can" wrist pins///

Hope that Ford helps all with the blend door repair bill as they really should.

 

[twomedicine]

mgnt decision

Sorry, you are probably and entirely correct as to who made the decision about materials/design; I am sure a trained and ethical designer would have gone down a different avenue.

The bottom line and cents/unit and the probability of $amount/warranty cost to fix were the likely figures on the spreadsheet while making the decision. Too bad the decision makers are not made personally accountable, maybe kind of an adjustment made to their stock options