2000 ford explorer blend door actuator

[Steve Wendling]

Ok thank you. I'll check it.

 

[Doozer233]

Holy cow, I thought that was a type-o. 26,700 miles on a '98 is unbelievably low miles on a 21 year old vehicle! 2 year old vehicles usually have more miles than that. Normally I'd say the shocks would still be good at only 26k, but with age IDK. Perhaps those Monroe's are the original shocks then. Super low miles on a vehicle is not always a good thing, because seals dry out from lack of use.

I had a thought on your thumping noise. The vacuum operated HVAC actuators have a diaphragm inside them. Maybe one of them has a hole in it's diaphragm and can't hold vacuum. Maybe something got pinched when the dash was taken out and replaced to change the blend door. Each air flow direction control will have an actuator and a vacuum line. They are connected to the back of the right-most HVAC control under the radio and I think each vac line is a different color. Perhaps you can test each actuator with an inexpensive hand-held vacuum pump/tester to see if they are holding vacuum.

I'll dust off a year-old thread! Especially since there seems to be a great amount of knowledge on the topic.

I have a 99 EB with the EAC. The previous owner removed the blend door actuator when it went bad and rigged it with a wire to stay open or closed.
I bought a replacement actuator, but it seems he did not save the bolts. Anybody know what size bolts hold it in?
Worst case I could hit a junkyard and try my luck.

Thanks!

 

[audiophile1]

Strange. The stripped gears are typically what make the thumping noise. I've had 3 go bad over the years in this way and so have many others here.

Here's something you can try...
Remove the crescent shaped gear from inside the actuator. Place the gear in the hole in the top of the heater box and see if it engages the blend door. It will only fit one way. You should easily be able to operate the blend door manually and feel/hear if hit the end of its travel in both directions. The total amount of travel stop-to-stop is about 1/4 turn. I operated my blend door like this manually for almost a year, though you do need to wire the gear in one direction or the other, as it will swing back and forth on its own.

If your blend door is broken there is a quick fix that can be performed by cutting a hole in the heater box. Removing the entire dash to replace the blend door is a ridiculous amount of work and usually you end up with new problems because you pinched something in the process of re-installation. If you want I can provide a link to the quick-fix.

Does anyone have an easy link to the heater but cut-open quick fix?

 

[Mbrooks420]

Does anyone have an easy link to the heater but cut-open quick fix?

Either a good portion of the dash has to come out, or you’re stuck cutting it. There’s no second easy solution.

 

[J_C]

I bet there's some youtube videos showing the repair. I'd cut it open, not fun taking apart brittle old plastic/foam/vinyl dash, though it being a very warm day can decrease cracking things. Seal it back up with HVAC aluminum duct tape, or whatever suits you.

 

[audiophile1]

I bet there's some youtube videos showing the repair. I'd cut it open, not fun taking apart brittle old plastic/foam/vinyl dash, though it being a very warm day can decrease cracking things. Seal it back up with HVAC aluminum duct tape, or whatever suits you.

Agreed. On a 10 year old vehicle 10% of the plastic breaks when you work on it. On this thing its 30%. Ordered a new main blend actuator. Will mess with it next weekend to see if its the door or the actuator. When on vent 60F it blows hot air. When I run max AC it gets cold. All blower positions change as normal (vent, floor, def).

 

[audiophile1]

Agreed. On a 10 year old vehicle 10% of the plastic breaks when you work on it. On this thing its 30%. Ordered a new main blend actuator. Will mess with it next weekend to see if its the door or the actuator. When on vent 60F it blows hot air. When I run max AC it gets cold. All blower positions change as normal (vent, floor, def).

This is interesting. Pulled the glove box. What you see is a blend door actuator gear only zipped tied into full heat position. No blend door actuator. This explains why on 60F vent setting she blows only hot air. Good news is all the other system items prolly needed to be done anyway aside from the new heater control valve. The bad news is that when I connect the new blend door actuator to the connector and adjust the temp up and down the new actuator motor adjustor gear does not move.

Ive noticed some posts where on startup the ACT unit displays an 888 briefly before going off. Is it likely that the ATC unit needs a reset before installing the the new actuator or there is some other electrical gremlin on the other end of the actuator connector?

Another option is running a manual level on the blend door. Anyone have any suggestions on each?

 

[J_C]

Rather than reading the whole workshop manual section on it, I'll just attach that and an excerpt:

To enter the self-test, press the OFF and FLOOR buttons simultaneously and then press the
AUTOMATIC button within two seconds. The display will show a pulse tracer going around the
center of the display window. The test may run as long as 30 seconds. Record all DTCs displayed.

If any DTCs appear during the self-test, follow the diagnostics procedure given under ACTION for
each DTC given.

If a condition exists but no DTCs appear during the self-test, refer to the Symptom Chart
Condition: The EATC System Is Inoperative, Intermittent or Improper Operation.

If the old one failed, one thing worth doing is checking the fuse.

 

[audiophile1]

Rather than reading the whole workshop manual section on it, I'll just attach that and an excerpt:



If the old one failed, one thing worth doing is checking the fuse.

Fuse looks good. That and the relay check was the first series of checks. Still looks good.

 

[audiophile1]

Fuse looks good. That and the relay check was the first series of checks. Still looks good.

Rather than reading the whole workshop manual section on it, I'll just attach that and an excerpt:



If the old one failed, one thing worth doing is checking the fuse.

Thanks for the snippet. Ill dig into the diagnostic tomorrow.

 

[audiophile1]

So to update. New blend door from Dorman doesnt work. ATC wont go into Self Test or Clear mode per any of the prescribed methods. No more fighting. AC is ice cold if I hold blend door shut to the front.

Does anyone have a good idea on how to implement a manual blend door control after market or through the glove box easily? Something that could be adjusted on the road safely.

 

[J_C]

Everyone's situation might vary but the first thing I'd do in that case is pull the head unit and open and inspect it, maybe it can be repaired DIY or replace with one from a junkyard.

Otherwise, a manual blend door control... The EATC version has 8 pins, so is probably a stepper motor. I've seen other designs using a regular brushed DC motor but those only needed 4-5 pins to work. It would probably be easier to repair the head unit than construct a circuit to control that IF you wanted every factory step between full hot and full cold door positions but if you only care about full hot and full cold, then there is a strong hint in the troubleshooting section of the workshop manual.

I've attached a picture of that manual page(s), so if you were to just wire the jumper leads they suggested to a switch, that would effectively move the blend door to full cold (step B12491) or full cold (B12492). See also the two PDF attachments for the wiring diagram for EATC and the workshop manual section that the picture came out of:

 

[audiophile1]

Im thinking cable actuated with a stop

 

[410Fortune]

I’ve cut plenty of these boxes open from inside the truck, under the dash. You can clearly identify the pivot point for the bottom of the blend door axle and there is a straight line from there in the plastic to use as a guide of where to cut

A Vibrating Multi tool makes short work of this

If you cut the box open properly you can pull down the flap you cut and remove the entire broken blend door. Smooth out the plastic from your cuts with a razor knife,
Insert the new stronger door (Dorman or others) and patch it all up with the plastic you cut out (flap) and duct tape/ hvac tape… done

This takes less then an hour after you have worked on these a few times

My buddy who had one of these trucks he didn’t want to mess with the actuator and controls anymore so every spring he would open the taped hole and move the door over to “summer” lol

I’ve always managed to fix them actuator and door

If the axle is broken then the whole door needs to be replaced

Easy way to actuate it? Just fix the system

Otherwise you can turn the door using the plastic piece from the old actuator motor. I’m sure a cable/ gear setup could be made… but to me that is just over thinking it. Either go full redneck with the tape or fix the system

 

[audiophile1]

The good news is the door is perfectly fine and the install of a new actuator is easy. Ive got another one coming to see if that works otherwise Im going to set some type of manual adjuster in there.

 

[410Fortune]

Many times I have bought the dorman actuator
To find it doesn’t work so I open it and use the nylon gear to fix my oem actuator which still worked but had a stripped gear