Heater problems with a 98 Eddie Bauer

[SleepAllDay408]

sometimes hot, sometimes not

I've had a number of problems with heat both in the engine and out of the vents. for a while my engine wouldn't heat up as much as it is supposed to, since changing the hot water valve and all the radiator hoses it heats up closer to where i think it should. although the heat out of the vents still isn't always hot when i have it on 90 degrees. sometimes it will go on right away and i can hear something click and out comes hot air, but other times it just continues to blow cold air. i thought about replacing the heater core, but i was advised that it probably wasn't that and plus you have the remove the entire a/c system in order to get to it, horrible design...they should have stuck with the earlier explorer model for the heater core...four bolts and its out. anyone have any suggestions for me? thanks

 

[X24]

have you replaced the thermostat? That might solve the engine temp problems.

 

[SleepAllDay408]

yeah, i had a mechanic change the thermostat once which didn't really make it run any hotter and then when i changed all the radiator hoses and the hot water valve (which was leaking), i changed the thermostat. although after reading everyone else's threads about actuator door problems i think that is my problem also. can a regular mechanic do it cheaper than the dealer? and if so, are there suitable aftermarket parts to do the job correctly?

 

[97sport]

the part cost me $106 at the dealer, the parts stores told me it would ba a dealer part, but i didn't check to see if it was true. If a regular mechanic is willing to pull out the dash theres no reason they could not do it. it doesn't take any special tools to do. It will be an all day job so the labor is what hits the wallet.

 

[Robert]

Good point. My local mechanic charges $45 an hour compared to my Ford dealer which charges $72 an hour. My mechanic can also buy parts from Ford at a discount and passes part of the discount on to me. If it were a 10 hour job, it would probably cost about $525 at my local mechanic. Hopefully I won't have to find out.

 

[X24]

alright, im a little confused now. (for those of you that dont know, my blend door is broken, I get hot air) It has been hot in NY the past week and I decided to use the a/c. Last summer it worked great... now its not working. I bought it in august so I was using the a/c when I got it and then once winter came and I started using the heat the blend door never worked. so I figured that I wouldnt have to get the blend door fixed since the a/c was working. I dont mind having a window cracked in the winter since I cant change the temp of the heat. The only thing I can think of is that the blend door broke the very first time I moved the temp control knob when I started using the heat and that is why the a/c isnt working now. Does that make sense? Will the a/c not work if the blend door is broken? On A/C i get hot air and on Max A/C it pushes air from in the car so it is a little cooler than the heat. What do you guys think?

 

[espnfreak]

my dads blend door is busted too, we need a better fix than tearing the dash apart. hopefully thats not the only way.

 

[X24]

My A/C worked great when I bought it last summer. It was really cold for months. Then over the winter my blend door stopped working. I had that fixed about 2 months ago and when I picked it up the A/C was not cold. I took it back and they said I was low on coolant and since the mechanic was an a$$ and didnt check to see if the A/C was cold they filled it and put dye in for free. A week later it was warm again. Does anyone know if they had to mess with the A/C in order to replace the blend door? What steps did they take in replacing the blend door? Basically, I want to know if they messed with anything that could have caused a leak or something else. I have not taken it back to have them look for the dye yet.

I want to get some info from here first so I can shove the BS right back in their face... God I love doing that. You can see them completely change their attitude when they realize you know what you're talking about.

 

[97sport]

the only things you have to remove from under the hood is the blower motor and a few nuts from the bolts that attach the blend door assambly and dash to the fire wall