Heat-A/C control panel thing 2003 limited

[dennis67]

Sooooo... just driving down the street minding my own business, stopped casually at a light and then reached to press the defroster button on.

Made light contact with the button and noticed the entire right side of the heating and A/C control panel give way... pushed again just to make sure I wasn't imagining things and sure enough.. the whole side just kind of pushed in about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch.. weird..

Got home, had a couple minutes and pulled the decorative surround thing off to get a look at what was going on.. when it came off, I basically had a little rain storm of black plastic bits from whatever was holding the AC control panel in place - because at that point it also just came out.. (yipes)

I haven't had the opportunity to look at it since.. first.. is this common? It struck me as a really weird thing to just happen.. I could see if we hit it or something but to the best of my knowledge, nothing has hit it since I bought it brand new off the showroom floor back in 2003... and secondly.. is this just some bracketing thing I can get cheap or is it part of the control panel itself? I (like many people) would like the quickest, easiest fix available and I dread to find out it's actually part of the control unit and it'll need to be replaced in its entirety.

Thanks for any suggestions, tips, whatever

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

For the most part I am knowledgeable with all the common defects and problems with the 3rd generation explorers. I have never heard of this before. I have an '02, the controls are the same as yours, never had this problem. This is not a common problem.

 

[EasyRhino]

My early build 2002 Explorer Limited with 93K miles does not have this problem, if that helps you.