gatzdon
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- July 17, 2007
- Messages
- 347
- Reaction score
- 15
- City, State
- IL
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2000 Exp XLS 4WD V6 OHV
Winter is here and my explorer was blowing only cold air, despite the hoses to the heater core being plenty warm.
I've seen quite a few threads where people resorted to cutting open the housing for the heater core and manually moving their blend door to the desired position.
Well, I have nothing against people cutting open their heater core housing, but I like to take apart things too.
So, knowing that I never heard the clicking that others reported I wondered if my problem wasn't related to stripped gears.
This youtube video shows you how to remove/replace your blend door actuator
After the actuator is out, you should mark the blend door position because it needs to be in that position to reinstall it.
Then using a screwdriver, you need to separate the cover at all of the clips.
Once the cover is off, the inside looks like this. I posted the pic because sometimes it helps to see it when reassembling it. I noticed that mine didn't have any stripped gears or burnt marks around any of the electrical components.
Now for cleaning the sensor. The piece that connects directly to the blend door has about 8 spring connectors (see red arrows). I wiped them off and gently pulled up on them to give them more spring. Inside the actuator, there are about 8 corresponding semi circle contact lines (other red arrow). I wiped these off and gently rubbed them with a pencil eraser.
I then reassembled everything and plugged it in (didn't reinstall it yet). I turned the key on and the actuator started moving. You can adjust the blend door position back to your mark using the temperature control in order to reinstall the actuator.
Remember, if it still doesn't work, you are no worse off than before and you can still cut your heater core housing to manually move your blend door.
Enjoy
I've seen quite a few threads where people resorted to cutting open the housing for the heater core and manually moving their blend door to the desired position.
Well, I have nothing against people cutting open their heater core housing, but I like to take apart things too.
So, knowing that I never heard the clicking that others reported I wondered if my problem wasn't related to stripped gears.
This youtube video shows you how to remove/replace your blend door actuator
After the actuator is out, you should mark the blend door position because it needs to be in that position to reinstall it.
Then using a screwdriver, you need to separate the cover at all of the clips.
Once the cover is off, the inside looks like this. I posted the pic because sometimes it helps to see it when reassembling it. I noticed that mine didn't have any stripped gears or burnt marks around any of the electrical components.
Now for cleaning the sensor. The piece that connects directly to the blend door has about 8 spring connectors (see red arrows). I wiped them off and gently pulled up on them to give them more spring. Inside the actuator, there are about 8 corresponding semi circle contact lines (other red arrow). I wiped these off and gently rubbed them with a pencil eraser.
I then reassembled everything and plugged it in (didn't reinstall it yet). I turned the key on and the actuator started moving. You can adjust the blend door position back to your mark using the temperature control in order to reinstall the actuator.
Remember, if it still doesn't work, you are no worse off than before and you can still cut your heater core housing to manually move your blend door.
Enjoy