HELP!! first only heat now only cold air... blend door?

[97_Sport]

I have a 97 Ex Sport... I took a road trip to WV to see the family for Thanksgiving... on the ride there my heat/AC was blowing nothing but hot air no matter what temp I would select. Then on the ride home I had the complete opposite. Now I have nothing but cold air and no heat!! This is NOT GOOD for the winter and I am quite concerned. At first I thought that I had a stuck blend door or broken actuator, but after it switched to full cold air I am not sure what to think. Maybe an electrical problem? Does anyone have any ideas or things I can check? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[performancenut]

Try searching for "heater control valve" and see whether this issue applies to your situation. Good luck.

 

[97_Sport]

Try searching for "heater control valve" and see whether this issue applies to your situation. Good luck.

OK thanks... i will try that. Also i forgot to mention that when i had only heat blowing, i could however switch it to MAX A/C and then i would get cold air.

 

[performancenut]

OK thanks... i will try that. Also i forgot to mention that when i had only heat blowing, i could however switch it to MAX A/C and then i would get cold air.

Well, then congrats. because it sounds like the infamous blend door dilemma. There are several fixes for this- relatively simple to complicated -which are described on this site.

 

[teamonetl]

EXACTLY the same with my XLT '97, only I can't get the cold back, not too bad up here in the winter, but bothersome none the less.
will try to search this forum for the fixes.

97' SPORT , let me know what you find out, I will let you know what I find

Thanks

 

[teamonetl]

http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/12/085/article/Ford_Explorer_Blend_Door_Fix.html

 

[97_Sport]

Thanks for the feedback... One day this week I will tear into the dash and see if I can find the problem. I will post my findings.

 

[97_Sport]

I have been reading a lot about this wonderful blend door problem... the thing is that I have yet to find someone that has had the same occurance as me where I was stuck on full heat for a while and now it is stuck on full cold. Every case that I have seen was either one or the other, not both. Can anyone explain this?

 

[97_Sport]

Anybody else?

 

[emolina]

That's how mine works. A/C on max only. Heat on other settings. It didn't fail all at once. But when it totally went I was stuck on hot air only. That doesn't cut it in SoCal. So I attempted the blend door fix. I couldn't completely remove the actuator but I did manage to get cold air or hot air. I'll try the fix again sometime.
Cheap Ford :thumbdwn:

 

[97_Sport]

bump

 

[fishnbas2]

Sounds like your blend door broke. It was probably on the warm side until you stopped and when you started it slammed shut and got cold. Mine is broke but it stuck on the warm side but if i need AC it still works on max. The heater box is expensive to replace and this was a problem for ford from 96-98 exp. good luck