Air con / blower problem...

[paulnash]

As I went to sell my 1998 'S' plate Ford Explorer today... a simple check of the front air blowers collapsed the deal...

The problem is.. The air blows, but only to the windscreen, no control to the front blowers.. Hot/Cold works fine, but only to windscreen, can't switch to floor or face blowers...

Ford service said it could be a few things from a cable (cheap!) to Computer problems (very expensive!)..

Anyone had same problem, or got any ideas..

Thanks.

 

[gijoecam]

Search for 'Blend Door."

Good luck!

-Joe

 

[Howard]

Most likely is a vacuum tube has come off. The tube runs down the off side in the engine bay to a reservoir which is under the air filter box. Then from there to the intake manifold. When I got mine someone had hooked up the reservoir the wrong way around. Swapped the pipes over and it all works fine. The reservoir is like a big golf ball and is mounted between the inner wing liner and the inner wing just behind the headlight. You can get to it by lowering the inner wing at the front.

 

[streetsweeper]

i just had the same thing happen to me.check the black plastic vacuum line going into the cab.mine was collapsed under the heater a/c box.you will have to loosen inner fender to change the hose.

 

[scrofts007]

I have a similar problem - cold air but only coming out of defrost vents.

The blend door thing frightens me - I spent £800 two years ago when the same thing happened to my Saab!

I have checked out the engine bay, but can't find the mysterious golf ball vacuum reservoir thing.

The A/c unit is on the passenger side (nearside) of my RHD 2000 XLT. The air intake box and fluid reservoirs are on the drivers (off) side.

There are the 2 main air con exchanger pipes coming off the unit and go around the front of the radiator.

Where should I look for the vacuum control thingy??

Thanks in adavance.

Stuart!

 

[Howard]

The small black vacuum pipe that goes to the control goes around the engine bay from just under the blower fan across the bulkhead and then down past the fuse box and goes under the air filter. The reservoir is under the air filter and above the plastic inner wing. To get at it go from under the car and undo the bolts at the front of the plastic wing liner. You should then see the ball. It is about 6" diameter with two pipes going in. Both are black and can go on either connection (push in fit). One goes to the control inside the car and the other goes to the inlet manifold. There are a couple of joints in the pipe around about the air filter and for test purposes you can bypass the reservoir. Hope this helps.

This is for RHD cars the routing may be different on LHD cars.

 

[scrofts007]

Thanks Howard. It's a little dark now, so looks like a job for the w/e.

I've not looked, but I assume you don't need to remove the road wheel - just look for a plastic inner liner under the air intake area?

STuart.

 

[Howard]

Yes but it may help to turn the wheel to the right for access. The bolts are at the front toward the bumper. But you will see from underneath. The plastic liner does fill the wing from front to back, but you can lower it enough by undoing just the front fixings. If I remember it is an 8mm bolt, but I could be wrong it was some time ago.

 

[scrofts007]

OK - I've got it out - it wasn't even bolted in, so I'm not the first to look at it!

There are 2 vacuum pipes going to it- one grey and one black - the black one had gone brittle and cracked easily as I tried to manouver it. The car went in for some work last week and part of what they charged me for was "curing vacuum leaks" - I now realise that meant putting a self tapper in the grey wire where it had disconnected, plus another self tapper in another pipe that was sticking out from under the injectors.
I took out the ball thing and connected the shortened pipes (Does it matter which way round they go? How do tell?), but still no change in the air direction.
Does it take time to build up enough vacuum?
If so how long?
Does anyone know how much the new ball is?
I disconnected the pipes again to see if there was any suction on either pipe, but there wasn't. Are they easy to disconnect from the air compressor?
Does anyone know what the other pipe does?
You can just see the brass coloured head on the RHS of this picture that is where the other pipe sticks out.

Any help gratefully received!

 

[Rab386]

i had this problem on my 2001 sport. it was the vacuum line, it had be chafed under the dash some how. after i found the hole (taking most of the dash out) it was a simple fix of relpaceing the macro line. it has been working fine for 9 months now.

i would suggest that you get a vacuum tester it will make the problem easier to find.

 

[scrofts007]

Which pipe do I connect a vacuum tester to please?

 

[Howard]

It does matter which way around although the ball has no labels. Experiment and one way will work the other not. You can test for vacuum with you thumb on the end of the tube. The tube gets vacuum directly from the inlet manifold. In neither pipe has vacuum with the engine running then the problem is further towards the inlet manifold. There should be no open pipes that need screws in them.

 

[scrofts007]

Thanks again Howard. I realised that there shouldn't be an open pipe, but don't know where to plug the third one into! There isn't any vacuum on either pipe at the moment - where does the other end connect to - I have followed the pipes back to the air con unit, but they disappear behind some taped on heat shielding - it seems a shame to have to renew all the pipes if there's another fault. Where is the pipe on the inlet manifold please - that could be the one that needs reconnecting.

Thanks
Stuart!

 

[Howard]

I think you are following the wrong one. That one goes through the bulkhead and goes to the vent controller (floor/screen etc switch). It is the other pipe that needs to be traced back to the inlet manifold. On mine there is a short one that comes off the manifold somewhere and appears in front of the coil pack and has a rubber joint near the end of the brake master cylinder. My pipes are all black. If that helps. Good luck. Maybe the one with the screw in is the feed ? I would not be happy with the garage for that kind of repair.

 

[scrofts007]

I have never trusted garages - even more so now!

I'll take another look tomorrow. Thanks for good info so far!