How to: 2nd Gen Blend Door Quick Fix

[scarletgem]

Try this...I did.
http://www.heatertreater.net/

 

[G-96XLT]

Check the vacuum lines for cracked hard plastic hose near rubber boot fittings.

I have a cracked super thin plastic hose under the hood. Is that related ? Is this what I should be looking and repairing. It is right by the heater area and washer fluid reservoir.

I was about to take apart the dash but I think my blend door is fine, when I change it from hot to cold it works instantly so my door must be opening and closing as it should.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Repair or replace the cracked plastic hose.

 

[G-96XLT]

Thanks it worked. I joined the two hoses with some electrical tape and the heater selector is now working. Another $0.02 fix.

 

[ladybugg37]

ok i was wondering what is the easist to fix or replace...i bought a blend door aculator thinkin it was the door that wasnt opening right...i guess what i need to know is do i just need to replace the door for 10.00 or the blend door aculator...or will the aculator fix my problem...if i just need the door then i can take this 40 dollar aculator back and get the door...can any one give me a suggestion or info on which i should do or which is best...or both for that matter

 

[ladybugg37]

oh yea one more thing...whats the difference in blend door and heater blend door lever

 

[SoNic67]

It's my turn to mess with the infamous blender door. I was driving and I heard a clicking noise behing the glove compartment and then hot air start coming thru the vents (I was on "Vent" setting). Regardless of the temperature setting air was hot.
The actuator behind the glove compartment is fixed with three 8mm screws - two in front, fairly easy to get and one on the back that looks like is very hard to get to.
So, beeing lazy, I just poped the hood and removed the actuator for the hot water hose and pushed the lever to "Closed" position like it is shown below. I don't think I will fix the blender door soon, I rather manually adjust the water flow from under the hood.

 

[mhardig]

Thanks to the information I got on this thread, I was able to figure out what was going on with my blend door; yes, the actuator is a chrome plated bugger to get to, but once I had changed it FIVE TIMES i got good at it.

The Dorman replacement part didn't work. Even after I figured out how to change the settings etc.

What i eventually did was to go to the yard and buy a handful of the actuators- it didn't matter to me what ones, as all I wanted was the little plastic gear. Once I replaced the little gear, the actuator went in and began to work like a charm. So now I have a couple extra actuators and a couple extra little gears in case it happens again. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread!

 

[2TimingTom]

Joined the club.

Although I'm not positive my blend door wasn't working (it seemed to blow warm air and the A/C was just kind of blah...., the heat was spectacular though). I did a combo- I cut the hole in the housing AND put the pin in the motor shaft. With the motor out, the door would just flop around- open...closed....open....closed..... So I decided to do the pin fix as well. Now I can verify the door is working via the access hole I cut.

So.... we'll see how it works.

 

[austinmob]

It's my turn to mess with the infamous blender door. I was driving and I heard a clicking noise behing the glove compartment and then hot air start coming thru the vents (I was on "Vent" setting). Regardless of the temperature setting air was hot.
The actuator behind the glove compartment is fixed with three 8mm screws - two in front, fairly easy to get and one on the back that looks like is very hard to get to.
So, beeing lazy, I just poped the hood and removed the actuator for the hot water hose and pushed the lever to "Closed" position like it is shown below. I don't think I will fix the blender door soon, I rather manually adjust the water flow from under the hood.

You could probably attach an old school choke or bonnet cable mounted under the dash to control the tap when you need to. I currently use a cable zip tie to hold the actuator closed during winter. As it is getting cold now in the land of OZ, i just removed the tie so the tap falls open. Warm are again. Its nice.

 

[abcosby65]

Explorer blend door quick fix

This advice was absolutely perfect and simple. i am very grateful for the information. It was very simple and cost nothing! for those of you who me, dont want to shell out 1200$ to fix this blend door issue, you can do this. im writing it in as simple a way as i can for those, who like me, arent very mechanically inclined.

open glove box, and push the sides in to drop the box down as far as possible. you will see a big black plastic box. inside of that box is the blend door, and your heater core (looks like a miniture radiator).

take a razor knife and on the farthest left side of that box, cut a square hole big enough to get your hand in (only cut 3 sides of the square though so that you can just bend the plastic down out of your way and put it back in place when finished). now that it's open, you can see the heater core, but not the blend door. the blend door is located around the back left side of the heater core. reach your right hand in, with your thumb down, so the palm of your hand is facing the passenger side of the truck. when you reach behind the heater core, you will feel the blend door, and you can swing it open or closed. if you want your air conditioning to work, open the door all the way. if you want your heat to work, close the door all the way. after you have adjusted the door how you want it, blend the plastic you cut to get your hand in, back to it's normal position and tape it up with some duct or thick masking tape.

unfortunatley you can only have hot or cold doing it this way, but it saves you 1200$ and a lot of headaches trying to fix this by pulling the dash.

for where i live, i need only a.c. in the summer, and only heat in the winter, so i just go in and change the door position twice a year. the original job takes about 5 minutes, then at the beginning of summer or winter when i go in to change the door position, it takes me about 3 minutes, and most of that time is spent removing the tape and retaping it.

i hope this helps someone.[/QUOTE]

 

[revodell]

blend door question

Is there a separate blend door for the rear air?

My rear air fan blows great but there is no air getting to the blower.

 

[Pontisteve]

Blend door problem or Auto AC Controller?

I have a 98 Limited 4.0 SOHC with the Automatic AC controls. Suddenly, the AC started blowing really hot, and changing temp settings didnt' help. If I hit the MAX AC button, the air blows somewhat cold. Hitting the Auto button, only really hot air comes out.

Checking the heater control valve, I found that the valve only gets vacuum when the MAX AC button is pressed. Any other setting, the heater control valve is not getting vacuum. So I thought I may have an auto ac controller problem... but now I found this thread and am not sure.

Also, the fan used to blow your hair back hard... great blower volume. Now, the volume of air coming out is 1/2 of what it used to be. I don't understand what is causing this.

Anyone been down this road? Do I have a blend door, actuator, or auto ac controller problem? No clicking noises heard. FYI, my heater control valve is up near the engine fan, not near the firewall.

 

[jdxprs]

damn! i posted this 4 years ago, and people still getting something out of it. glad i took the time to post it!

 

[revodell]

My rear air blower motor was running fine but no air was coming out. After great effort I went to Ford and they printed me a schematic for the rear air console and in it I found there was a manual blend that sent the air to the top or bottom vents but there was also another blend door on the other side. I had to take apart the console to see the entire vent, cut a long hole in it and looking in there I found the blend door which I .....ripped out! Not professional I know but it is fixed now..........I duck tape the vent back together and now I am off to bigger problems.


I saw a witch who was sad and alone in the cold. I offered her a large robe to be nice and she got very angry with me and said, "I'm a medium!"

 

[Pontisteve]

After searching this forum, I found out that the problem these explorers have is that the top of the blend door hinge cracks. The blend door motor screws into the top of the AC case, right behind the glove box. The male shaft that sticks out of the blend door motor engages the female plastic blend door, which allows the motor to turn the door as needed. The plastic hinge cracks, and that is a very common problem with no easy fix. The best solution ends up being to cut a large hole in the bottom of the AC box, and pull out the old blend door and install a new one, then patching the hole with tape or epoxy when done.

The correct fix is to drain the AC, drain the coolant, pull the dash, open up the AC box, and install a new blend door. Way too much labor for most folks, plus expense. Much easier to do this hack and remove the blend door externally. Plus, if it ever happens again, it wouldn't be hard to get back into it. Find the threads on this repair here if needed. For manual AC Explorers, Dorman makes a blend door replacement, part# 902-202. It won't fit Auto AC vehicles though. The blend door actuator for an Auto AC car is #604-201 Dorman.

So since I have auto AC, I may have to get a blend door from Ford. If they don't make them anymore, I may have to get a stainless steel door made by a retrofit company, I forget their name.

In my case, it appears to me that my problem was actually mostly caused by a bad blend door motor. The fact that my blend door hinge was cracked in half was not yet the main problem, but would have been soon. Now that I took the blend door motor off and inspected it with a mirror, I saw the hinge was cracked, and when I touched it, one of the cracked pieces fell into the AC box. So if it wasn't a problem before, it is for me now!

I plan to use a razor blade or something thin, cut the bottom of the box out in the triangle shape described in the other thread, using a straight edge for a guide. I'll cut at an angle, so the piece can go back in and create somewhat of a seal. Then I'll probably AC tape it up temporarily, to make sure my problem is solved for a month or so, then later I'll epoxy the box back up, once I know its fixed.

Getting the box cut open correctly, large enough to pull the blend door out in 1 piece, and reinstalling the new one will be the trick.

 

[sevenlitre]

Heater blend door repair

I used the kit from Heater Treater, and have had very satisfactory results for the past 17 months. The kit costs around $130, and comes with complete instructions and a warranty. Installation required about 1/2 hour, but is a permanent repair, and not a "stop-gap" measure which allows only heat or cooling.

 

[Denise Gilmour]

I have no heat in my 1998 Ford Exployer Sport 2 door, after looking on the internet it showed how to change the actuator behind the glove box. I bought one and after taking the glove box out, realized I don't have an actuator, only the electrical cable to plug it in? I had heat for many years so I don't get it. There isn't even any screwholes where it should go, please help.

 

[Pontisteve]

The blend door actuator is on top of the AC box. There's about a 2" tall "window" that you can reach into and feel the actuator. It's big enough to be able to get the actuator out, but not by much. There's a plug that goes to the actuator.

While it might be the blend door actuator, or the blend door problem itself, it might also be unrelated. Perhaps your heater control valve is bad? My 98 SOHC had the valve in the front of the motor, pretty low, somewhere on the passenger side near the timing cover and crank pulley. Make sure that has a good vacuum line going to it, and that if you use a vacuum gun on the thing, it moves the rod that opens/closes the control valve.

You can probably back trace the vacuum line up to the passenger upper fender well area, and hook your vacuum gun up there instead of at the heater control valve. It's pretty buried. Also, you can gain access to the visibility of the thing by removing the passenger inner fender plastic liner, or splash guard, I forget which.

One note of caution: If you start playing with that blend door actuator, you risk breaking a blend door that may not be shot just yet. You need to determine if you have a blend door problem without removing the actuator. Play with the temperature dial and see if you have a change in temp.

Also, you have to make sure there is hot water in the engine. That means a good water pump, thermostat, and no leaks. Sounds trivial, but remember that no water cannot become hot water.

 

[SkeeterDon]

I will try and see if the actuator is working. While driving I here a clicking noise. Could this be the actuator or the blend door?

Thanks,
Donnie