3rd gen Explorer Blend Door Actuator Replacement | Page 9 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

3rd gen Explorer Blend Door Actuator Replacement

^ well the 3rd speed deal has nothing to do with the blend door actuator .

Happened on my 04 as i only had the fan speed work on "high"/ "4". I just replaced the part in the heater control unit where the knob pushs into / turns. That dail deal. was like 30$.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





^ well the 3rd speed deal has nothing to do with the blend door actuator .

Happened on my 04 as i only had the fan speed work on "high"/ "4". I just replaced the part in the heater control unit where the knob pushs into / turns. That dail deal. was like 30$.

Are you saying that you just replaced the Speed Dial Selector switch?

picture.php


Thanks for you help. :salute:
 






Hey I checked my truck for you last night. There is a definite speed difference between 3 and 4. There's a slight difference between the speed of Max vs. normal AC when the fan is at 4. I didn't hear any doors, but you could tell that it was changing from outside air to recirc air.

Hope this helps.

Mike
 






Hey I checked my truck for you last night. There is a definite speed difference between 3 and 4. There's a slight difference between the speed of Max vs. normal AC when the fan is at 4. I didn't hear any doors, but you could tell that it was changing from outside air to recirc air.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I gotta look into this this weekend. :salute:
 






Are you saying that you just replaced the Speed Dial Selector switch?

picture.php


Thanks for you help. :salute:


.................


ya. All i did was pull the knobs off, pull that center piece out. ( kinda have to pry it out/ work your way around pulling). and then take out the i think) two 8mm bolts holding the climate control panel in, un hooked /un plugged everything, popped out the speed dail switch deal, put in the new switch/dail and re assembled everything. tools needed- screwdriver to pry out the plastic center piece and a 8mm socket/ratchet and a little bit of your time.


I just had the blower work on "4". Everyone talks about resistors ( i come from a GM background). Went to the dealer and asked the guy how many of these switch dails speed control deals he sold VS the resistor and he sold about the same. So i gave the switch/dail a try and been working for at least a year now.

but still do some research. I know there is a post about resistors. I am just telling you what worked for me!
good luck
 






Thanks for the info. :thumbsup::thumbsup::salute:
 












Our 2003 Explorer seems to meet all of the symptoms mentioned for a broken blend acuator. Except the clacking noise part. We never had the noise(s), but it will only blow cold air. We have the automatic climate control unit. Could we have something other than a broken blend actuator? Thanks.
 






Justin
I had a blend door problem with mine that was relatively silent and simple. The pivot pin on the blend door broke, disconnecting the actuator from the door. 1st symptom was uncontrollable HOT (Az) or cold (in the mountains in winter) air in the footwell of the passenger side. Made an occasional clunking noise when switching to recirc but relatively silent problem.
You can check by flipping the glove box down (press in by the stop on the side of the box and remove the stop cord if equipped). You'll see the blend door actuator behind (actually in front of) and above where the box usually sits. It's a metal cylinder with a vacuum hose on one end and a flat metal rod (actuator arm) extending upward to the right out of sight behind stuff on the upper end. You almost need a mirror or to stand on your head, but take a flashlight with you and look around in there, you can even see a bit of the door itself. Turn on the power & fan, rotate the air diverter dial back and forth into recirc mode and you'll see the actuator arm move, if it doesn't move you have another problem, if it moves, just follow it. Anyway, the actuator arm connects to a plastic pivot pin on the blend door and you can see/feel where the end of the actuator arm goes onto the pivot and operates the blend door. On mine, that pivot pin was broken but I was able to reposition the actuator arm onto the remaining end of the pivot pin (there was about a 1/4-1/2" of the pin still there) and secure it with a couple of nuts (8 or 10/32nd) to lock it on. That did the trick really a simple repair, just had to do a lot by feel, yoga helps too.
 






...yoga helps too...

Not to mention copious amounts of drinking and cursing...

Mike
 






Justin
I had a blend door problem with mine that was relatively silent and simple. The pivot pin on the blend door broke, disconnecting the actuator from the door. 1st symptom was uncontrollable HOT (Az) or cold (in the mountains in winter) air in the footwell of the passenger side. Made an occasional clunking noise when switching to recirc but relatively silent problem.
You can check by flipping the glove box down (press in by the stop on the side of the box and remove the stop cord if equipped). You'll see the blend door actuator behind (actually in front of) and above where the box usually sits. It's a metal cylinder with a vacuum hose on one end and a flat metal rod (actuator arm) extending upward to the right out of sight behind stuff on the upper end. You almost need a mirror or to stand on your head, but take a flashlight with you and look around in there, you can even see a bit of the door itself. Turn on the power & fan, rotate the air diverter dial back and forth into recirc mode and you'll see the actuator arm move, if it doesn't move you have another problem, if it moves, just follow it. Anyway, the actuator arm connects to a plastic pivot pin on the blend door and you can see/feel where the end of the actuator arm goes onto the pivot and operates the blend door. On mine, that pivot pin was broken but I was able to reposition the actuator arm onto the remaining end of the pivot pin (there was about a 1/4-1/2" of the pin still there) and secure it with a couple of nuts (8 or 10/32nd) to lock it on. That did the trick really a simple repair, just had to do a lot by feel, yoga helps too.

Are you saying your blend door actuator is behind the glove box on your 2002 Explorer? Mine seems to be behind the center console. I looked behind the glove box and I don't see it there. Sounds like you had a problem with the diverter door which controls where the air goes, not the blend door that controls the temperature. The blend door actuator is controlled by the temperature knob and is not vacuum. It's electronic and runs through the computer.
 






Mine closes with a thump when you turn the air on. Clicks until then. 02 XLT with 225k miles.
Looks like I'll do the actuator thing.:(

D
 






My wife's problem suddenly went away. She now has Max A/C and heat. Glad I didn't have to tear it apart. Don't know what it was. Maybe a dead mouse blocking the mixer door. She sure gets plenty of those in the vehicle and I have no idea how they get in.
 






Is there anyone who sells just a new gear? That is all i need. The small black double gear
 






Finally got the actuator out, now what??

Okay, I am having the problem where I have two settings: Heat and Max AC. And even on Max AC, it isn't "refreshingly" icy all the time. and it only seems to be cold out the center vents in the front.
Everything I've read leads me to believe it's an actuator problem. So I got to the actuator, got it out, opened it up and nothing seems to be wrong with it. Nothing broken or missing. The gears turn, but not easily. Anyone have any ideas of what I should do or try? I'm going to sell it soon, so I'm not trying to spend a lot of money, or time for that matter.
 






Dorman part for 2005

What is the difference between Dorman part #604207 and #604209? 209 is for manual AC control and 207 for automatic AC controls.

So I guess my real question is what's the difference between manual and automatic? Is automatic the kind where you program in the desired temperature and manual the simple knob?

thanks!
 






I just used this how to and it worked great. Maybe an 45 minutes -1 hour start to finish if I hadn't also been doing some other work at the same time and taking my time for a brew ever so often.

The small gear on the smaller of the two black gears was bad. If anyone needs the big black gear or the other components they are all sitting on a shelf in the garage just incase.

Scot
 






are you guys using a ford part or going with a aftermarket part for the actuator?

I personally stuck with ford as the price difference wasnt much.
 






I need to do this before the winter. I'm stuck on A/C, not bad in the summer but I'm gonna need heat soon. Thanks to a lot of great write-ups, I hope I can do it with minimum complications.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Blend door & Actuator replaced, Excellent cold mediocre cold

Hi Folks,

Last winter i encountered the dredded click of death. I broke down and bought the Heathertreater blend door fix and found that only the actuator was broken - likely the blend door jamming caused the actuator to break..

Anyhow, Ever since the fix (almost a year now), I can't get enough heat from the system. 100% hot on the dial feels like 50-60%. I've actually dismantled the whole fix and checked and the actuator and blend door appear to be working, though contorting ones self like a gymnist reveals some doubt. As with most things - summer = not caring about heat, but now that winter approaches its suddenly more of a concern.


Any ideas?

Tomorrow i plan on pulling the dash panel and watching the arm on the right side of the blend door move. Will see if it moved "enough".

Perhaps it needs a recalibration?
 






Back
Top