Just replaced the Blend Door Actuator on my Gen IV | Page 5 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Just replaced the Blend Door Actuator on my Gen IV

My 2007 ST Dual Auto Climate is experiencing strange temp changes on the passenger side. It will start off cold (as it needs to be at 90 degrees outside) but then sometimes after 5 minutes or 30 minutes of driving, the passenger side goes hot. It then will sometimes go back to cold. Does it sound like the passenger side blend door actuator, or could it be a computer glitch? I don't hear clicking, but then again, in the Winter, it seemed to make some funky noises now and then.
 



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I have a quick question for those of you with a 2006 Explorer (dual air / manual controls): WHERE is the Blend-door/actuator for the rear air? My problem is that when I send the A/C out through the rear-floor vents it's very cold, but if I send it through the over-head/rear vents it's sort of warm. . .

Would that mean a rear blend door problem?

Most of the instructions I've seen say the blend door is under the dash but my front air works great. It's the rear (and only over-head/rear) that is too warm. :mad:

Thanks in advance!
 






I'm about to do mine if you could message me the greatly appreciated please John 2007 Ford Explorer XLT over 4.6 L
 






...I heard that banging noise on Monday and I immediately knew what the problem was. I found the blend door actuator on Amazon for $59.00. I installed the new part and everything is working fine now, but I have 1 problem... After putting everything back together I realized that I forgot to install that stupid foam washer. How important is that foam washer?
 






i just changed mine it was blowing cold and clicking but now it only blows heat and wont blow cold ... is there some specific way to install the actuator? should i have left it in a certain position? 09 explorer xlt
 






i just changed mine it was blowing cold and clicking but now it only blows heat and wont blow cold ... is there some specific way to install the actuator? should i have left it in a certain position? 09 explorer xlt
When I replaced my actuator this past Spring I plugged it in and watched it operate (rotate back and forth in both directions) in my hand before installing it (cold to hot....and hot to cold)....then I made sure that it was bottomed out in the cold position before unplugging the electricity as well as making sure the the blend door being in the cold position before I bolted it in place. Don't know if that was necessary before doing the job....but figured it couldn't hurt.
 






+1 on this.. definitely what I did.

When I replaced my actuator this past Spring I plugged it in and watched it operate (rotate back and forth in both directions) in my hand before installing it (cold to hot....and hot to cold)....then I made sure that it was bottomed out in the cold position before unplugging the electricity as well as making sure the the blend door being in the cold position before I bolted it in place. Don't know if that was necessary before doing the job....but figured it couldn't hurt.
 






guess i will be pulling it out again thankfully i didnt put the panels back on since half of my instrument cluster bulbs were already blown out too
 






i just changed mine it was blowing cold and clicking but now it only blows heat and wont blow cold ... is there some specific way to install the actuator? should i have left it in a certain position? 09 explorer xlt

When I changed mine, I forgot to turn the heat adjuster dial down so I had to do the blind hunt for the position where the actuator stem slid into place. Once I found the right position, I had to turn it so the screw holes lined up. I am thinking that maybe you somehow forced it in position so that its not lined up properly.
 






My actuator is making the clicking sound so I bought the part on Amazon. Went to put it in and lo and behold I don't have the tools needed (Don't have enough extensions to get to the top bolt or the deep 10mm socket to get the lower two support bolts off. Called my older brother and of course he has them and is giving me a bunch of **** as usual. Of course I could buy the required bits, but this give my bro and I an excuse to get together this weekend in the man cave with a couple of cold ones and turn some wrenches!
 






Honestly if you are referring to the bolt that is highest up from floor pan, loosen the other two and rip that actuator out. There's numerous references in this thread that refer to that bolt being a **** to get to.

That is how I replaced my passenger side actuator and have had no issues with the newly installed on.
My actuator is making the clicking sound so I bought the part on Amazon. Went to put it in and lo and behold I don't have the tools needed (Don't have enough extensions to get to the top bolt or the deep 10mm socket to get the lower two support bolts off. Called my older brother and of course he has them and is giving me a bunch of **** as usual. Of course I could buy the required bits, but this give my bro and I an excuse to get together this weekend in the man cave with a couple of cold ones and turn some wrenches!
 






Hi edwx....thanks for your advice on this. On my 07 XLT it became necessary a week ago to replace the blend door motor and the job was quite easy as I put myself through college as an auto mechanic and have most of my tools still. I went with the Dorman motor from Rock Auto. Dorman Products have been good to me over the years, so I'm loyal. I did a post-mortem also and found stripped teeth in the FOMOCO OE part. Anyway, while I was waiting for the part to arrive I got curious and wanted to see if my blend door was jamming (perhaps causing the blend motor to work harder). I used an Allen key that fit perfectly into the receptacle of the blend door and operated it by hand. It was free and clear and smooth in its whole range of motion....but interestingly the heat on the floor seemed hotter when I operated it to the full hot position by hand. It led me to theorize that the blend door motors for these manual climate control systems on a Gen 4 car perhaps don't operate the door as far as it can be operated by hand.....and in both directions (hot and cold). Any thoughts on that theory ? Because the motor is so easy to remove, I'm thinking about pulling it out next fall or winter and doing some "testing" with the Allen key when the temps get colder. Right now it's too late and too warm to really get a handle on it. If I'm correct I'll probably tape the Allen key in place for the winter and keep the blend door in it's full hot position.
I finally got around to doing the above mentioned blend door motor "testing" today....and I think I discovered something that may be helpful. I started by going for a ride running an errand and fully warming up the engine.....today it was about 38-40F in the NYC metro area when I was working on it. Then with the temp selector wheel left remaining in the full hot position, I shut it off and pulled the screws that hold the blend motor in place...but DID NOT remove the motor. It turns out, I could rotate the motor housing (with my hand) just a slight bit more clockwise to "move/actuate" the blend door even further to the full hot position. It wasn't much movement (maybe 1/4 inch or so), but is seems to have made quite a difference. So now, the 3 eyelets of the blend door motor no longer line up with the screw holes in the heater box that hold it in place.....so I very securely duct taped the motor in that place using no screws. I then grabbed my automotive thermometer probe and checked the floor and panel vents with the blower in position # 3 and the engine fully hot. I got 140F out of the floor and 133F out of the panel vents. As I said, the ambient temp today was 38-40F....and the cabin was piping hot....more heat than I would need at blower setting #3 . So it turns out that the new motor does not quite rotate the blend door 100% to the hot.....and probably not 100% to the full cold either in the summer. I'd say maybe the motor achieves 95% of the travel range of the blend door. So.....having gone thru December and early January already, I could tell that the heating was not going to be good enough for the winter....and that's what prompted me to get in gear with doing this "test" today. The only thing I messed up with is not getting "before" modification temp readings. But I'll know in the next two days or so if this little mod makes a difference with the overnight lows being 20-24F...because on days with temps around 30F my feet have been cold while driving.

Anyone happen to know roughly what temps should blow out of automotive vents in the full hot position on a 40 degree day ? I know there are general charts for AC temps that take into account summer temps and humidity, but I've not seen one for winter temps and heating.
 






Finished the job in my 2010 Explorer, it wasn't hard, just a pain in the butt like any job under or behind the dash. The part was $103 w/tax in San Luis Obispo, CA, our stealership is rip-off. God only knows how much I saved in labor costs. Thanks to all above for their postings.
 






Seeing as so many in this thread have some experience with diagnosing climate control problems... I've got an '08 Explorer Limited, dual digital climate control and rear manual climate control with no rear a/c. I don't have a clicking noise, but when I have the temp set to anything under 32C (highest setting), the lower vent will blow the correct temp, but the upper vents (either face vents or defrost vents) will only blow cool air. Don't think it's the actuator. Is there a switch?
 






Hi y'all, found great videos on this showing what to look out for, I opted for OEM part from the dealership. It was about $87. One thing I'd like to mention that was a little unexpected was when you remove the old part, leave the setting where it's at so that when you're ready to plug the new one in, the key will line up exactly where you left the old one. The new one can't be turned unless power is applied. That means you will have to plug in the new one temporary, turn the instrument key, then the shaft will go to the same position as the old one. Turn the key off. Now you're ready to begin installing the new one. Hope that made sense.
 






Replaced the passenger blend door in our 2008 about 3 weeks ago, was a huge pain in the ass, the bottom 2 screws were not so bad, but the top one was a giant headache. When I finally got it out I knew I was never going to get the screw back in on the new one, so just broke that tab off. Lining the shaft up was then another headache, but once that was done those bottom 2 screws went in easily enough and everything is good.
 






Sound like it was never meant to fail. Can't be reinstalled...
 






I replaced the actuator--learning time: 4 hours; job time: 1 hour! THANKS to the excellent photos Rhondo posted in the forum--no doubt, an article for the books! NOW, I have a really loud click, and the actuator seems to be the problem. It sounds as if it's "hung" and can't move the door inside. Any advice anybody? ...it's getting cold outside, still no heat!
Where can i find this post by rhondo? i need photos.
 






Where can i find this post by rhondo? i need photos.
There are a ton of youtube videos showing how to do this now. Some of those bolts are hard to get to. Here's one, good luck.

 



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I don't what this guy in the you-tube video is talking about when he says you need to go to a dealer "because the blend door actuator is VIN specific". Perhaps he should have explained why he personally needed to do that in his particular case. He is working on a 2007 model year (as is my Explorer) and I simply bought one on-line from Rock Auto (In my case I bought the Dorman brand for less than 40 bucks including shipping a couple of years ago...just checked my receipt...but there were other brands available too).

As far as the tools go...the ratcheting box wrench is a nice luxury to have, but they're expensive and I personally don't have a set of them and I'm not buying a single stand-alone wrench for this job . I did the job with just a regular metric wrench and/or a 1/4 inch drive socket. So the moral of the story is, just because a guy makes a video for you-tube, don't assume he's correct. After all, he did mention he had to do the job twice to finally get it right. Perhaps he didn't even know if he had automatic or manual climate control in his own vehicle.....SMH.
 






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