Clicking in Dash

[BrightExplorer]

Hey everyone,

My wife's 03, recently developed a fairly loud, repetitious "Clicking" sound from her dashboard...

And she told me this morning that her heater doesn't work... I have yet to verify the heater issue myself.

I am no mechanic... I live in an apartment, so I don't have many tools...

Would this be something that I could do fairly easy or do I have to pay out the wazoo to take it to a shop?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mikbor1]

Chances are it is the blend door actuator--Mine made a loud clicking (almost banging) noise when it gave out--I actually had no problem changing mine, due to the excellent write ups and info from this site--I did have a dealer quote me $ 700.00 to do it (car was in for recall)--

 

[BrightExplorer]

Thank you kindly, that actually sounds like the problem, with the Blend door being stuck...or just burned out...

I will take a look at it... Luckily I have the tools necessary to do that...

 

[Exproblems]

Hey everyone,

My wife's 03, recently developed a fairly loud, repetitious "Clicking" sound from her dashboard...

And she told me this morning that her heater doesn't work... I have yet to verify the heater issue myself.

I am no mechanic... I live in an apartment, so I don't have many tools...

Would this be something that I could do fairly easy or do I have to pay out the wazoo to take it to a shop?

Thanks in advance.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mikbor is correct, it is your "blend door actuator" that has broken. It is a plastic enclosed, electrical motor mounted behind your dashboard in the area behind the fan speed control knob. A couple of cheaply made (thanks Ford) plastic gear teeth have broken off inside the plastic actuator housing and this motor can't rotate the blend door from the cold side over to the hot side because of this. They usually fail while set to the cold side of the system and you get that "clicking" or "clunking" sounding when you attempt to switch over to the hot temp side. Below is the repair post link from "BigRondo" on how to replace this actuator. It comes with photo's and the tools list you will need to do this repair yourself. Print the photo's and instructions up so you will have them in your vehcle as you work for reference points. Follow his instructions closely when installing the new actuator and testing it prior to mounting it. This is a very common problem on 3rd generation EX's. Depending on your body's flexibilty, you can do this repair in 1-2 hrs, give or take and do it in your apt's parking lot. The recommendation is to buy a new "blend door actuator" from Ford/Dealership (Part is $80-$90) and use your vehicles VIN number when ordering it, to ensure you get the exact fit part for your Explorer. BTW, Ford dealerships want around $700 to do this AKA a rip off! Good luck and let us know how you made out after it is done!

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294140


BTW, to temporarily get heat into your wife's Ex till you can fix the actuator, turn the temp control knob to the hot side and you'll hear it start to click, then open the glove box and press in the side tabs to allow the glove box to roll all the way down and out of the way. Reach in behind the dashboard with your right hand/fingers gently, and feel for a lever arm that is flipping up and down. This arm attaches to the blend door itself and you then "flip it" with one of your fingers downward" until it stays in the downward position, which is then set to the hot temp side. Might have to flip the lever arm a few times till it stays in the downward position. You will get heat after doing this. To do this only takes a minute or so, but to keep the blend door from falling back over to the cold side after you have shut the vehicle off for a while, is to turn the fan speed setting to high #4, before you turn the key over to start the vehicle. I found the fan air pressure set to high kept the blend door from flipping back to the cold side during start ups. There is a write for this temp fix in here called the "10 second blend door repair", but I don't have the direct link handy ATT.

 

[BrightExplorer]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BTW, to temporarily get heat into your wife's Ex till you can fix the actuator, turn the temp control knob to the hot side and you'll hear it start to click, then open the glove box and press in the side tabs to allow the glove box to roll all the way down and out of the way. Reach in behind the dashboard with your right hand/fingers gently, and feel for a lever arm that is flipping up and down. This arm attaches to the blend door itself and you then "flip it" with one of your fingers downward" until it stays in the downward position, which is then set to the hot temp side. Might have to flip the lever arm a few times till it stays in the downward position. You will get heat after doing this. To do this only takes a minute or so, but to keep the blend door from falling back over to the cold side after you have shut the vehicle off for a while, is to turn the fan speed setting to high #4, before you turn the key over to start the vehicle. I found the fan air pressure set to high kept the blend door from flipping back to the cold side during start ups. There is a write for this temp fix in here called the "10 second blend door repair", but I don't have the direct link handy ATT.

Nice!

I like it! I'll go see her at lunch and take care of that temp solution...

Thank you.

 

[hobbitak]

When mine broke I couldn't keep it in the hot position without having fan speed at 3 or 4 all the time....just a heads up that it may flip back to cold when you start it if it has enough back pressure. You might want to show your wife how to do this incase the door flips back and she doesn't want a cold ride home

Also the reason that these fail (from what I've found out) is that they aren't quite calibrated right. When you turn them ALL the way to hot or cold (to the stops on the temp dial) the actuator is applying too much strain on the gears the solution to this (lengthen the life of your new actuator) is to not quite turn you temp setting ALL the way hot or cold.....this also applies to anyone who still has an original actuator that hasn't broke yet.

 

[BrightExplorer]

When mine broke I couldn't keep it in the hot position without having fan speed at 3 or 4 all the time....just a heads up that it may flip back to cold when you start it if it has enough back pressure. You might want to show your wife how to do this incase the door flips back and she doesn't want a cold ride home

Also the reason that these fail (from what I've found out) is that they aren't quite calibrated right. When you turn them ALL the way to hot or cold (to the stops on the temp dial) the actuator is applying too much strain on the gears the solution to this (lengthen the life of your new actuator) is to not quite turn you temp setting ALL the way hot or cold.....this also applies to anyone who still has an original actuator that hasn't broke yet.

I will most definitely teach her to do this...

And, You know that does make sense.... Because when I drive her car, and she's riding passenger, she likes to try and take control of the temperature, she'll quickly turn it to the extremes of the temp gauge, and then I hear a "thunk" when she does it...

It all makes so much sense now...


Well.. Looks like I have a weekend "honey do" that doesn't involve going shopping...

YAAAYYYY!