Ford Explorer 2006 A/C not blowing at front

[janfdg76]

My A/C blows air only at the back seat area, feet area, and the defroster area. It does not blow on the circular vent on driver, center, and passenger.
However it does blows cold air and I can hear the blower or fan working, especially when it is on MAX AC.

One of the thread says something about a white plastic blend door actuator. I checked this and it works. I learned that this is controlled by the temperature knob.

I also checked that metal bar that connects to a small round plastic. This works because it moves when I switch it to blow air to feet area.

Some says about vacuum reservoir or vacuum lines. I do not know where this is.

What else could be the problem? It's like something is blocking the air at the front vents.

 

[janfdg76]

Problem Solved:
I went to justanswer.com to help me troubleshoot because I do not know how things work. When you remove the glove box by passenger side, I see the blowing fan which works because I can feel and hear when I turn on AC. Next to this is this black oblong shaped plastic. I think they call this vacuum reservoir. It has black hose attached to it. I can feel the suction on this hose when car is on.
They expert told me that there might be a problem with the A/C control module and that I need to test if there are suction on the tubes connected to the A/C control module. I started dissassembling the middle container where the stick shift is at, the face plate for the A/C and radio, also removed the radios. I noticed that there is a door flap at the bottom of the radio area, I pushed the door flap to open, and A/C blows to the circular front vent areas. I turned it off, the door flap closes and doesn't want to open.


I also removed the bottom panels on both driver and passenger side where the air blows on your feet. I also removed the whole gove box by passsenger side. I removed the plastic covering/trims and the odometer/gas/temperature reader thing by the steering wheel.

At the back of the A/C control module that has MAX AC to defrost selection, there is a white plastic that has four vacuum tubes connected to it. I followed this and each is connected to a silver can where a metal arm pumps up and down. This arm connects to a plastic round thing that opens a door flap.

I disconnected the colored vacuum hoses one at a time, while switching the control knob from MAX to defrost.

Black already has suction on it.
Yellow hose - has suction only on foot area and off position.
Tan hose - has suction only on MAX AC and off position.
Blue hose - has suction on foot and any other foot combination, but not off position.
Red hose - has suction on max, face, face/foot only, but not off position.


This tells me the suction works.

I looked and traced the red hose more and found the silver can that has metal arm on it. The end of the metal arm has a hole and it is not connected to that round plastic that opens the flap for the front vents. Somehow that plastic broke. The expert said that it will cost $1700 to $2000 to repair this. I decided to drill a hole on the plastic and tie it to the metal arm. I turned on the A/C and it works. There is now air on the front vents.

 

[njlarry]

Good post!
I have the same problem but have no suction in the red line. Anyone know how to find the cause-vacuum vs elctrical? Is there a fuse for this? I couldn't find it in the manual.
How much vacuum should the line have?

 

[tinodtank]

hi, can you please help me? I have the same problem with my 2008 Explorer, I can see the broke plastic piece just like yours but cannot remove the dash. I have took off the cluster, middle console, radio, glove compartment, etc. both sides of the dash are loose but it won't come off. Do you have to pull it?