2000 ford explorer blend door actuator

[Steve Wendling]

Ok thank you. I'll check it.

 

[Doozer233]

Holy cow, I thought that was a type-o. 26,700 miles on a '98 is unbelievably low miles on a 21 year old vehicle! 2 year old vehicles usually have more miles than that. Normally I'd say the shocks would still be good at only 26k, but with age IDK. Perhaps those Monroe's are the original shocks then. Super low miles on a vehicle is not always a good thing, because seals dry out from lack of use.

I had a thought on your thumping noise. The vacuum operated HVAC actuators have a diaphragm inside them. Maybe one of them has a hole in it's diaphragm and can't hold vacuum. Maybe something got pinched when the dash was taken out and replaced to change the blend door. Each air flow direction control will have an actuator and a vacuum line. They are connected to the back of the right-most HVAC control under the radio and I think each vac line is a different color. Perhaps you can test each actuator with an inexpensive hand-held vacuum pump/tester to see if they are holding vacuum.

I'll dust off a year-old thread! Especially since there seems to be a great amount of knowledge on the topic.

I have a 99 EB with the EAC. The previous owner removed the blend door actuator when it went bad and rigged it with a wire to stay open or closed.
I bought a replacement actuator, but it seems he did not save the bolts. Anybody know what size bolts hold it in?
Worst case I could hit a junkyard and try my luck.

Thanks!

 

[audiophile1]

Strange. The stripped gears are typically what make the thumping noise. I've had 3 go bad over the years in this way and so have many others here.

Here's something you can try...
Remove the crescent shaped gear from inside the actuator. Place the gear in the hole in the top of the heater box and see if it engages the blend door. It will only fit one way. You should easily be able to operate the blend door manually and feel/hear if hit the end of its travel in both directions. The total amount of travel stop-to-stop is about 1/4 turn. I operated my blend door like this manually for almost a year, though you do need to wire the gear in one direction or the other, as it will swing back and forth on its own.

If your blend door is broken there is a quick fix that can be performed by cutting a hole in the heater box. Removing the entire dash to replace the blend door is a ridiculous amount of work and usually you end up with new problems because you pinched something in the process of re-installation. If you want I can provide a link to the quick-fix.

Does anyone have an easy link to the heater but cut-open quick fix?

 

[Mbrooks420]

Does anyone have an easy link to the heater but cut-open quick fix?

Either a good portion of the dash has to come out, or you’re stuck cutting it. There’s no second easy solution.

 

[J_C]

I bet there's some youtube videos showing the repair. I'd cut it open, not fun taking apart brittle old plastic/foam/vinyl dash, though it being a very warm day can decrease cracking things. Seal it back up with HVAC aluminum duct tape, or whatever suits you.

 

[audiophile1]

I bet there's some youtube videos showing the repair. I'd cut it open, not fun taking apart brittle old plastic/foam/vinyl dash, though it being a very warm day can decrease cracking things. Seal it back up with HVAC aluminum duct tape, or whatever suits you.

Agreed. On a 10 year old vehicle 10% of the plastic breaks when you work on it. On this thing its 30%. Ordered a new main blend actuator. Will mess with it next weekend to see if its the door or the actuator. When on vent 60F it blows hot air. When I run max AC it gets cold. All blower positions change as normal (vent, floor, def).

 

[audiophile1]

Agreed. On a 10 year old vehicle 10% of the plastic breaks when you work on it. On this thing its 30%. Ordered a new main blend actuator. Will mess with it next weekend to see if its the door or the actuator. When on vent 60F it blows hot air. When I run max AC it gets cold. All blower positions change as normal (vent, floor, def).

This is interesting. Pulled the glove box. What you see is a blend door actuator gear only zipped tied into full heat position. No blend door actuator. This explains why on 60F vent setting she blows only hot air. Good news is all the other system items prolly needed to be done anyway aside from the new heater control valve. The bad news is that when I connect the new blend door actuator to the connector and adjust the temp up and down the new actuator motor adjustor gear does not move.

Ive noticed some posts where on startup the ACT unit displays an 888 briefly before going off. Is it likely that the ATC unit needs a reset before installing the the new actuator or there is some other electrical gremlin on the other end of the actuator connector?

Another option is running a manual level on the blend door. Anyone have any suggestions on each?

 

[J_C]

Rather than reading the whole workshop manual section on it, I'll just attach that and an excerpt:

To enter the self-test, press the OFF and FLOOR buttons simultaneously and then press the
AUTOMATIC button within two seconds. The display will show a pulse tracer going around the
center of the display window. The test may run as long as 30 seconds. Record all DTCs displayed.

If any DTCs appear during the self-test, follow the diagnostics procedure given under ACTION for
each DTC given.

If a condition exists but no DTCs appear during the self-test, refer to the Symptom Chart
Condition: The EATC System Is Inoperative, Intermittent or Improper Operation.

If the old one failed, one thing worth doing is checking the fuse.

 

[audiophile1]

Rather than reading the whole workshop manual section on it, I'll just attach that and an excerpt:



If the old one failed, one thing worth doing is checking the fuse.

Fuse looks good. That and the relay check was the first series of checks. Still looks good.

 

[audiophile1]

Fuse looks good. That and the relay check was the first series of checks. Still looks good.

Rather than reading the whole workshop manual section on it, I'll just attach that and an excerpt:



If the old one failed, one thing worth doing is checking the fuse.

Thanks for the snippet. Ill dig into the diagnostic tomorrow.