Intermittent A/C problem - 97 Ford Explorer 5.0 V8

[KINNEY201]

1997 Ford Explorer XLT 5.0 V8

Good Morning,

I started having an intermittent A/C problem about two weeks ago.

Sometimes the A/C will work as it should, blowing ice cold air.

Sometimes the A/C will start blowing ice cold air, but then I hear almost like a flap closing near the floor board of the passenger side, then the air turns warm.

It's intermittent, and at this point, depending on the day, has a mind of it's own and does what it wants.

Any suggestions or solutions would be greatly appreciated since I live in Florida and would rather have it working all of the time.

As always, thank you in advance.

 

[Iqinsanity]

The climate controls in a lot of cars work off of vacuum and there are flaps behind the dash that control heat. Sounds like you have a vacuum leak if the explorer is one of those cars. I haven't looked at my controls but a few years ago I put explorer knobs in a thunderbird and they were vacuum but I don't know what year the knobs came from. I just liked that they were silver not black and the tbird had the lever controls which suck.

 

[my98nnj]

Does it work correctly on Max A/C? If it does, then chances are your blend door is broken.

 

[KINNEY201]

Does it work correctly on Max A/C? If it does, then chances are your blend door is broken.

Hi, it is intermittent even on Max A/C. On Max A/C it will start out ice cold and then I hear that "sucking" sound, almost like a flap closing, and then immediately hot air.

 

[Iqinsanity]

Vacuum leak in controls or the door actuator is bad

 

[KINNEY201]

Vacuum leak in controls or the door actuator is bad

Is it easy to test for this?

By "door actuator", you mean an A/C door?

Sorry if these are stupid questions.

Thanks again.

 

[Iqinsanity]

By door I mean the flap behind the dash. I'll take a pic in a sec.

Ok I don't know how to upload a pic but on my 97 it's behind the glovebox on the right in the dash.

 

[KINNEY201]

By door I mean the flap behind the dash. I'll take a pic in a sec.

You are great, thank you!

 

[DoraThe_Explorer]

By door I mean the flap behind the dash. I'll take a pic in a sec.

Ok I don't know how to upload a pic but on my 97 it's behind the glovebox on the right in the dash.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147920

This thread should walk to you through how to post pictures.

Good luck!