No Heat!

[rjhusak]

It must be the law in the universe... All works well till -10 is upon us!
My heater control doesn't seem to work. Engine temperature and all seem normal. Antifreeze levels fine. The only warning it gave me was I could not contol the heat on tuesday stayed full on. Wensday full cold. No change with the heat level knob... This morning -10 and frost inside the glass.. Damned...
Any ideas out there? I have noted that since I have owned the truck when changing the heat mode very much I heard a creaking. Is it common for the "blend air door" to stick?
Any help will be most appreciated..
Ron Husak
Conifer, Colorado..

 

[Mbrooks420]

It's more common for the blend door to break than stick. It's fairly common. If you work it back and forth, while moving maybe, you can sometimes get them to move. Mine is stuck now, but it's on full heat. To get it to change to AC I have to be moving. I guess the wind helps move the flap. I am not messing with it until summer, for fear of losing my heat permanently. You may want to do a search for blend door fix.

 

[Eneurb]

If you drop the glove box door and look straight and a little to the left, you can see the blend door actuator. You can put your finger on the top part of the shaft that drives the blend door. If the shaft is turning and you don't feel any temp change, there's a pretty good chance that the slot in the blend door is broken. Replacing it requires removal of the dash and replacing the heater box. One of my favorite jobs, I'm actually paying my mortgage with them!!

 

[Opera House]

You can just open the glove box and cut into the plenum and move the door by hand. There are two seams in the plastic. Cut left of the vertical and above the horizontal. No need to worry about destroying anything, official fix requires a new box anyway. Then just cover the hole with tape. The colder you get, the better that idea will sound. I haven't bothered doing anything more than that for over two years.

 

[rjhusak]

Hi..
Damned.. I can see how you are paying your morgage with this repair.. I have been "a bit under the weather" and haven't poked around with this myself. So I called my freindly Ford Dealer.. He said About $1000 for this one.. Damned.. It's got 156K and I am wondering if it is time....
The hole in the heater box sounds a LOT better..
Ron Husak
Conifer Co

Thank God it warmed up a bit!

 

[Eneurb]

1000 bucks is a bit steep... especially for U.S. dollars... it'll cost you less than that in candian dollars.

 

[pumpkin]

That price is true. My cousin's '95 Limited has the same problem. Replacing the thermostat did nothing. A friend of his that works in service at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership told him it would be about a 6 hour job to replace the heater box. He was qouted a price close to $1200.
Drilling a hole and using duct tape sounds good to me.

 

[Eneurb]

6 hours labor is right, I don't know what labor rates are in the US, but ours is $90 per hour Canadian, that's about $75 US I think. So, that makes $750 in parts... I've done a few of them in the past month or so, and it only takes $400 Canadian in parts... doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[matey]

It must be the law in the universe... All works well till -10 is upon us!
My heater control doesn't seem to work. Engine temperature and all seem normal. Antifreeze levels fine. The only warning it gave me was I could not contol the heat on tuesday stayed full on. Wensday full cold. No change with the heat level knob... This morning -10 and frost inside the glass.. Damned...
Any ideas out there? I have noted that since I have owned the truck when changing the heat mode very much I heard a creaking. Is it common for the "blend air door" to stick?
Any help will be most appreciated..
Ron Husak
Conifer, Colorado..

Dude i would be moving

 

[410Fortune]

Hey! I am in Confier as well, well turkey creek.

The reason they want to charge you so much is because they have to jack up the engine to get the new heater box in there....guess what it will probably just happen again with the new box, so your best bet is to do this cheap fix and cut a hole...

You can search and find everything you need
If you want some help let me know.....I am pretty busy right now with my "project" truck but I am always able to help and I am only a efw miles from you.....

 

[Eneurb]

I've worked for Ford for 12 years, and I have yet to see one of the replacement heater boxes fail. I have probably replaced about 50 heater boxes, and I have yet to have to jack up an engine to replace one.

 

[N2FORD]

Just had mine done, local a/c shop charged me $300. The part was $93.93 with tax wholesale. It was worth it to me to have it fixed and not spend a weekend working on it, then having dash rattles cause I missed tightening something. He said he had done hundreds was also a plus for him doing it.

 

[Eneurb]

Agreed. It's nice to have things work the way they are supposed to. Especially if you have EATC... what a luxory!!

 

[krlill]

I had the same problem last year. Air was full on cold no matter what fan speed I set it to. I found a loose vacuum line under the dash(directly under glove box). Hooking it back up solved the problem. Hope it's that easy.

 

[Eneurb]

The temperature blend door is not vacuum operated. Mode door actuators are, as is the heater valve, that was likely what the vacuum leak caused.

 

[Ron Husak]

Hi All..
Well yesterday I did the "cheap and easy" repair.. Just was a bit uncertain as to where to cut.. But the directions here also made that clear. Man I wish I had done this a few weeks ago.. It's been damed cold in the Explorer..
Thanks for the help!
Ron Husak
Conifer, CO