2001 explorer heater, blend door actuator

[Dean Machine]

I am trying to fix the heat on my 2001 Ford Explorer Eddy Bower.... The blower just blows cold air. I took the heater hose off the return side of the core at the firewall and I got clean hot water coming out of the tube. That tells me that hot water must be flowing through the core.

My explorer has an electronic heater control in the dash, it appears to be working properly. I removed the blend door actuator and turned the temp from cold to hot and back. The actuator never moved. With the wire plugged in and the part in my hand nothing moved. I expected the gears to be stripped out but they appear to resist me manually turning them just fine.

I have checked the fuses under the hood and on the driver door. I checked them with a test light. Some had no power on either side of the fuse. I didnt check any relays because I dont know how. I dont know if the part is bad or just not getting signal. It occurred to me that I may still have a blown fuse, but that the fuse is only powered when the actuator is supposed to be in motion. I think that is unlikely... I am open to suggestion!

 

[koda2000]

It could be that the actuator is dead or that there's something wrong with the EATC control unit. I had the same thing happen on a 2000 Mountaineer (same setup as the '01 Explorer). I have the luxury of having multiple vehicles to try switching parts around and found the even with a known good actuator, the motor wasn't turning. I replaced the EATC control unit and it then worked with my original actuator, that is until it stripped it's gears 6 months later. Still haven't replaced the actuator. Shut the blend door manually for A/C all summer and opened it this past fall for heat. One of these days I'll stick in a new actuator.

BTW: Even when the blend door actuator works it turns almost imperceptibly slowly.

 

[Dean Machine]

It could be that the actuator is dead or that there's something wrong with the EATC control unit. I had the same thing happen on a 2000 Mountaineer (same setup as the '01 Explorer). I have the luxury of having multiple vehicles to try switching parts around and found the even with a known good actuator, the motor wasn't turning. I replaced the EATC control unit and it then worked with my original actuator, that is until it stripped it's gears 6 months later. Still haven't replaced the actuator. Shut the blend door manually for A/C all summer and opened it this past fall for heat. One of these days I'll stick in a new actuator.

BTW: Even when the blend door actuator works it turns almost imperceptibly slowly.

I assume the EATC is the electronic control unit in the dash. Mine appears to work, by that I mean it lights up and displays the selected temp and changes temp as I adjust the buttons... What comes out of that unit, I dont know! When your EATC failed, did it appear to work as mine does?

 

[koda2000]

I assume the EATC is the electronic control unit in the dash. Mine appears to work, by that I mean it lights up and displays the selected temp and changes temp as I adjust the buttons... What comes out of that unit, I dont know! When your EATC failed, did it appear to work as mine does?

EATC stands for Electronic Automatic Temperature Control.

Yes, it still looked like it was working normally. There's a way for it to perform a self-diagnostic. You hit and hold certain buttons and it will display a code (sorry, I'm don't recall the procedure, but you can Google it). I never had much luck with it telling me what was wrong. The actuators tend to fail fairly regularly too. The EATC actuator looks the same (on the outside) as the manual control actuator, but internally it is very different.

 

[Dean Machine]

EATC stands for Electronic Automatic Temperature Control.

Yes, it still looked like it was working normally. There's a way for it to perform a self-diagnostic. You hit and hold certain buttons and it will display a code (sorry, I'm don't recall the procedure, but you can Google it). I never had much luck with it telling me what was wrong. The actuators tend to fail fairly regularly too. The EATC actuator looks the same (on the outside) as the manual control actuator, but internally it is very different.

I did the self test and got a code 024 which translates to "Blend door short" I have ordered a new actuator and I hope that solves the problem! Otherwise the short could be just about anywhere... Thanks for the awesome info and help! I never would have known the self test even existed!