03 Explorer 4.0L V6 with "rythmic" engine clunking noise.

[HawkeyeExplorer]

Hello, My wife was driving to work this morning and called to tell me about a noise that sounded like it was coming from behind the radio. It was a rythmic "clunking" noise about every second or so. She didn't notice any power or acceleration issues. The noise was even there when she came to a stop.

The radio was turned off and I had her turn on the heater and the noise stopped. Had her turn the fan off and back on again, no noise. Has anyone had problems like this? I've heard of some of these engines spitting spark plugs but I'm not sure what to even look for. Thanks in advance!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread into the stock 2002-2005 section.

 

[grn03exp]

It sounds like the all too common blend door actuator failure. If it happens again turn the temp selector slowly and see if it stops. Mine died about 2 months ago and the first time it had issues it just clicked like that for a few min and then stopped. 2 weeks later it gave up the ghost and now i cant change it to hot, always cold. Do a search for "blend door" and you'll see tons of threads with good info.