Blend door vote

[Sid Daley]

Re: Starting to act Wonky !!

Not the blend door.. Whew..
Turns out my radiator was running a tad low and
it was affecting the temperture of the hot air.

Boy am I happy !!

Sid

Originally posted by Sid Daley
Just bought the 97 X six months back and have
been following the board for recurring themes. The
other day I noticed I was getting cold air when it should have been blowing hot, the hot air started up and it appeared fine, then today the heat/cold was very sporadic.

I'm not hearing any unusual sounds however, I think the symptons are Blend door related, I have sourced a Ford tranny guy in the Surrey B.C. area that now works out of a shop in his home, when I went to visit home a while ago to diagnose my tranny he had a 97 EB in his shop with the dash ripped out and having the whole assembly replaced. He says the part is 200$ Cdn, I think he gets it wholesale from the Ford dealership he used to work at, then he charges $300 for labour.

I can get the job done for around $500 which from what I've read here seems reasonable.
I plan on starting a new thread and seeing how many people have had success with the free blend door fix from Ford Truck forum.

Sid

 

[98EBV8]

It's a problem for BOTH manual and automatic climate control systems. The material used for the blend door was made of ABS plastic, the revised part is now made of nylon.

Mine went out around 15K miles at 4 years old. The dealer was able to get the price down from almost $1000 to $700.

 

[alphabets13]

Mine went out around 15K miles at 4 years old. The dealer was able to get the price down from almost $1000 to $700.

98EBV8, wow you only put 15k on your X in 4 years! thats amazing.

 

[98EBV8]

I went back to my service receipts and found out that I first reported this problem at the dealer at 15836 miles, just a few days after my 3 (not 4, ) year factory warranty was up. The climate control was just blowing only hot air, MAX AC is the only thing to cool it down.

For some reason, it cleared up after a week before taking it to the dealer. They found nothing wrong.

Then, at 23321 miles (over 4 years), the climate control was blowing only cold air, no heat whatsoever. It was below zero in December at the time and I was getting cold feet. So, the dealer couldn't fix it until about three weeks later at 23465 miles, it was finally fixed for $700.

Presently, my truck is now over 29100 miles for 5.5 years.

Right now, I am revisiting this coolant thermostat leaking, but that's another story

Shane

 

[darktrance]

Blend door disintegrated

(newbie 1st post)
My blend door failed about 2 years ago ~45k. Saw lots of folks about it before getting the dreaded $900 estimate. Some mechanics are worth thier weight in gold, as my friend's told me about the problem without needing up see the truck.

I was playing around with the 'cheap fix'; throwing a pin in the pivot and adjusting it manually. While I still had my head under the dash, I fired up the blower and got hit in the head but about 20 pieces of the disintegrated gear (safety last, kids!). Was kind of fun to watch little ABS plastic pieces shoot out for a few days, but eventually I guess most of the gear left.

Anyone ever rip out the dash and do a replacement? I see not everyone is able to convince Ford/Dealers to cover the costs.

 

[holze4u]

No problemos

I aint had any problems, my control switches from cold to warm. But the damn AC dont work, hasnt since i had it, oh well, dont need it that bad. Thats what they make windows for....Right???

 

[alphabets13]

i don't think the problem started until 95 with the new model.

 

[dogfriend]

Re: Blend door disintegrated

Originally posted by darktrance
.

Anyone ever rip out the dash and do a replacement? I see not everyone is able to convince Ford/Dealers to cover the costs.

Welcome to the site.

Yes, at least one member has done it:

Dead Link Removed

There is also a method that does not require removing the dash which pagz found:

http://www.proacshops.com/accum-March-April 20011.pdf

 

[PghBill]

No Problem Yet!

But I have my fingers crossed!

I looked at the both references posted by dogfriend. The replacement through firewall seem simpler. A lot simpler! Has anyone done this? What's the downside?

Also, does anyone know if Ford will pre-emptively fix the door if it still works?

Thanks!

 

[c96drumm]

It's broken on my 96, 94K miles.

 

[Jeff]

Broken on my '97. Approximately 85k miles.

No After Warranty Assistance from the wonderful Ford people 'cuz it's out of warranty. Weird how their AWA program works isn't it?

 

[mohawk82]

I believe mine failed at 120k ('97 XLT)...plan to either do the pin repair or take it into the shop :-(

I've determined that they can't design blend doors, timing chain tensioners (dodged a $$$$ bullet there...had to replace the engine at 80k tho'),drivers seat reclining levers,spare tire winch/lift assemblies , and spare tire jack handles among othe things

 

[serg011]

Broken on 1996 Sport I bought last week

Broken on 1996 Sport I bought last week from privaty party. When I tested A/C I tried in on Max and found it workng OK, stupid me not trying everything...

Now planning to apply quick and dirty fix with a nail through glove box, if it doesn't work or breaks again would go through the firewall. No way I would pay $900 for that...

-- Sergei

 

[serg011]

Just got it fixed with a nail. It works !!!!

We'll see for how long though. I also left the nail too sharp, I'll get it back and smooth a bit, otherwise it might scartch the plastic.

 

[wpurple]

Preventive maintenance?

I have not as of yet had my blend door fail, but was wondering since it is deterioration of the plastic being the culprit, if a coating of spray silicone (or something equivalent) would keep it from deteriorating or deteriorating as fast??

 

[95limited]

The blend door has broken twice on my Limited. I almost think that is why the last owner sold it. While going through all the paperwork on repairs, I found one bill from Jan 2001 for replacing the blend door and another from Jan 2003 for replacing the blend door. He paid over $900 the first time and almost $600 the second time.

I'm hoping the second one was the new improved version.

 

[96_explorer.com]

I am wondering if mine is the same problem with the Blend Door issue.

I notice that you all have your blend doors stuck on HOT AIR and on mine it seems to be stuck on cold air only.

So nope I am not getting any heat .


About 7 months ago,,, I came with this same issue of the problem I am having once again and I replaced the heater core... and now 7 months later,, the problem occures again. Do any of you think mine is the same issue with maybe a Blend Door issue?

Thanks

 

[Zulu95]

Failed on hot around 55K on my '96.

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

Mine started blowing hot air in all positions other than Max A/C when my truck had 99k miles on it. Now I have 105k miles on it and have yet to take it to get it replaced.

If you're tight on money, just use the windows. In cool weather like now, I usually have the setting at "Automatic" mode so air will come out from the floorboard and defrosters instead of the panel air registers while having my sunroof tilted so the temp inside the cabin doesn't get very warm. In cool rainy weather, I use the "Automatic" setting and have my side windows cracked (I have ventshades) so water doesn't fly in. In warm rainy weather, I use Max A/C for a while with the side windows cracked. I'm doing this is because I don't have the money to pay for the repairs yet so... that's the only way to go for me.

 

[c96drumm]

Another blend door fix

Here's how I fixed my blend door.
The recess in the blend door that the actuator motor shaft engages is deeper than the shaft reaches. My blend door still had some undamaged hole depth left in it. So I made an extension for the actuator shaft so it could reach the undamaged part of the hole and move the door.
This extension is made from 3/8" aluminum rod, 15/32" long. I drilled and tapped the center of the end of it to take a piece of 2-56 threaded rod. A bit bigger would be better, but that's what I had on hand. Then I filed and belt sanded the extension to match the "D" shape of the actuator shaft. It has to taper down quite a bit to fit into the door hole, which has a taper. You can see this with a mirror.
To keep the extension from rotating out of alignment, I made matching shallow razor saw cuts in the ends of the shaft and extension and upon assembly, inserted a small piece of thin sheet metal in the cuts to lock them into alignment.
I failed to measure the length of the threaded rod I used. I just made it long enough to stick out the top of the actuator shaft (it's hollow) far enough to get a washer and 2 nuts on it. (jamnut)
I used loctite where the rod screws into the extension and epoxy where the shaft and extension join to keep that little piece of sheetmetal in place and for additional strength.
I'm hoping this will make a permanent repair because the material at the bottom of the hole is thicker than at the top, so maybe it won't break.
If any of this isn't clear, say so and I will try to clarify it.